Mohs surgery

 They take out as little tissue as possible, while getting all the skin cancer.  They start with a chunk about the size of a pencil eraser and go do lab work on it.  That takes about two hours.  If there is any cancer in the edges of the chunk, they go back and chase it across your face with subsequent excisions until the edges are clean.  They got all of Judy’s on the first try.  It took a couple tries to get all of mine. We’re through with that part.  All our edges are clean. Tomorrow, skin grafts to plug the holes they made.  

Sunday

 Saturday’s walk was at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. From morning light on moss draped oaks To hanging vines To storm damage To a scenic overlook With a view from the hawk tower (past a lower tower) Which included a lift-off of 250 Broad-winged Hawks (No photo.  They were too far away.) and an Olive-sided Flycatcher (Photo).  See him at the top of the tree in the previous photo too? From there, we went by Tom’s place to see how his lot looked with his new casita (during a thundershower). And photographed an RV site that has the concrete surface we’re considering for our spot. That cloud of blackbirds in the background got our attention.  A closer look showed that most of the birds were Bronzed Cowbirds, with European Starlings and a few Brown-headed Cowbirds mixed in.  

Fall is in the air

 A front is trying to push its way through and it’s breezy.  At 7am, before dawn, it was so cool that, for the first time since we got back here, we had our morning coffee inside.  Can you blame us?  It was only 75 degrees! Yes.  Fall is definitely in the air.