Day: May 15, 2021

Checking In

Fandango29 Comments

I usually check my spam and trash comments daily. First, I want to make sure that some legit comments didn’t inadvertently get swept up into my spam folder or bypassed spam and went directly to trash. And second, because I’m anal and I want to keep my blog neat and tidy, free of spam and trash.

But I somehow missed doing my spam/trash cleanup yesterday and when I went to tidy up today, this is what I found:

Between spam and trash, there were 129 bogus comments in 24 hours. And within 30 minutes of taking the above screenshots, I received three more comments in my spam folder and one more in trash. Do these spammers really think they’re fooling anyone when they say something like “You guys are doing a great job.” What guys? Anyone who has read my blog knows that I’m a sole practitioner.

Or how about “My bother found your weblog on MSN and strongly recommend it to me.” My weblog? Really? On MSN? Seriously?

And then there are the spammers who ask what blogging platform I use, if I created my own theme, or if I have trouble with spammers.

Oh well, while annoying, these spammers are, so far anyway, harmless. I just need to remember to check my spam at least daily so I don’t end up with spam and trash by the hundreds.

How often to you check and clean out your spam and/or trash folders?

Weekend Writing Prompt — Wanton

Fandango8 Comments

“Be my guest,” my mother said to me, “and throw your life away with that wanton woman. Who am I to rain on your parade? If you want to be a nincompoop and not bide your mother, that’s your choice.”

“Mom,” I said, “I love how she can be sensual one minute and demure the next.”

My dad just smiled.

(Exactly 60 words)

Written for Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt, where the word is “wanton.”

Also for these daily prompts: The Daily Spur (guest), MMA Storytime (rain), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (nincompoop), and Your Daily Word Prompt (bide).

SoCS — The Growth

Fandango20 Comments

I thought it was a little pimple that popped up on the upper left side of my forehead. But instead of disappearing after a few days, as pimples are wont to do, it persisted. And it grew larger. Still, I ignored it, figuring that it would eventually go away.

But it didn’t. After a few weeks, the “pimple” seemed to be something more that just a zit. It grew bigger and was not perfectly round, like most pimples are. So I decided to go to a dermatologist to get a professional opinion on what this “more than a pimple” on my forehead was all about.

The dermatologist examined it and confirmed that the growth on my forehead was not, in fact, a simple pimple. He decided to take a scalpel and removed a layer of tissue from the zit and had his nurse take it to the on-site lab for analysis. Around ten minutes later, he walked back into the treatment room and told me that he had good news and bad news. The bad news was that my growth was cancerous. The good news was that it wasn’t a melanoma, the most dangerous and potentially deadly type of skin cancer.

It was squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), the second most common form of skin cancer. SCC is usually found on areas of the body damaged by UV rays from the sun. It’s fairly slow growing, and when caught early, it’s relatively easy to treat.

My dermatologist said, “Let’s cut that sucker out” and he scheduled me to come back in a few days for something called Mohs surgery, an outpatient procedure done in stages, all in one visit, After removing a layer of tissue, the surgeon examines it under a microscope. If any cancer cells remain, the surgeon knows the exact area where they are and removes another layer of tissue from that precise location, while sparing as much healthy tissue as possible. The doctor repeats this process until no cancer cells remain.

For me, it took three stages to get to the point where no cancer cells remained. The doc then stitched me up and affixed a bandage over the site and told me to return in a week to have the stitches removed.

Here’s a selfie I took after the surgery and right before I left the doctor’s office.

Written for Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, where the word is “growth.”

FOWC with Fandango — Nincompoop

Fandango32 Comments

FOWCWelcome to May 15, 2021 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.

I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).

Today’s word is “nincompoop.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.