Friday. Raining through the weekend, they're saying. OK. Rain. We can do rain. (hup! hup!) An appointment later at eleven with the dermatologist to check for unhappy moles and such. It's been once a year like clockwork now for a number of years since my family doctor sent me to him to cut away five funny looking moles that had attracted his attention. A couple more a year later and not a one now in these last several years.

I don't have many moles, haven't spent a lot of time in the sun, not really aware of them as such, but if the few they found some years ago (at the edge of becoming cancerous) might have become a problem, how many others who don't get an annual physical fail to catch them in time? This preventive medicine thing becomes a bigger deal as time rolls along and I, for one, have been lucky in having mine.

The computer running Windows 7 continues to blow up at least once, sometimes two or three times when I first turn it on in the mornings and then settles in to run for the rest of the day without issue. I lost the first paragraph this morning when it blue screened. I'm assuming I have a hardware problem or a device driver problem that won't be cured until the hardware gives up or someone out there (Microsoft comes to mind) fixes the driver, if that's what it is. Some say life is becoming more complex than we, as a species, can handle. I'm not sure they're wrong.

Now, now.

It doesn't happen often enough to push me too far over the edge. At least not yet. With unlimited funds I'd replace the computer, but don't have unlimited funds, even (unfortunately) when it comes to cameras, so we'll leave it at that.

Later. A window of opportunity with the rain, a bus to Broadway, a walk then to the dermatologist's office, arriving well ahead of the appointment allowing some time over a cup of coffee at a table in the building café before heading upstairs.

No change in the various bumps and bruises, moles and marks, other than something I've been picking at on my upper arm, which he zapped with liquid nitrogen and told me to leave it alone for a week. OK, I can do that. I think. But otherwise a clean bill of health until next year when we do it again.

Then a walk and a bus back thinking I might stop to pick up something to eat, but noted it was looking like the rain was gearing up, so I opted for dry and went straight to the apartment. Hence the window of opportunity comment getting in my walk without getting wet. A grey rainy day, not too cold, a good afternoon for guitar practice. (hup! hup!) I'd like to be able to say that without the hup! hups! One day. I'm confident.

Later still. Another lunch at the sushi place down the street. I've got to watch this, I can't really afford to be eating sushi day in and day out, not with the morning breakfast at the usual place. Some hot soup this time, a chicken something with rice and hot sake. Not a lot, but enough to get me in the mood to play guitar as I listened to the news on public television.

So you're a little buzzed?

A bit, but that's the idea. A bit without going over the edge on a rainy Friday. I thought of cheese, crackers and sake from the local Safeway, from the local Beverages & More, but driving in the rain made me think, the larger amount of sake I might buy at a store made me think and the numbers come out pretty much the same either way. Calculate, calculate.

Are we in control?

We are in control, we've been judicious, but the day isn't over yet.