deleting this, deleting those

Let's say it all began at the doctor's office, shall we?

At least, that's when this latest bout of getting rid of stuff began, so that's close enough for government work.

Hey, that's an old joke from my Navy days.

I guess that makes it appropriate for this little conversation I've started, too.

My day had started with a dermatologist visit at the Savannah VA Center, with Doc Brown.

No, he isn't THE Doc Brown from "Back To The Future", but Hal Brown is a pretty cool cat.

We have some interesting chats, too, while he's taking a close look at all the moles and spots I have.

This time, the talk turned to the upcoming hurricane season and what our chances might be this year.

I explained to him that Savannah had only started attracting hurricanes in the last few years.

Heretofore, except for Hurricane David in 1979, the big wind storms would come close to shore, then trip on our continental shelf and veer up to Charleston or other points north of us.

However, the dredging of the Savannah River, coupled with Tybee's "beach replenishments" over the past two decades, has shifted around tons and tons of sand.

That means the profile exhibited by the shelf extending out from our shoreline has been altered, and that alteration seems to allow hurricanes more access to landfall here.

He and the nurse assistant were pretty interested in that theory.

We chatted about other stuff, too, mostly concerning hopes that the pandemic would not peak up again this summer as it had last year.

Another topic were my moles.

He did a thorough check, not finding moles of interest on any of my body parts - hey, that's my phrase, right?

I guess he must deal with folks who are overly modest about having their skin scrutinized, but, as I tell him each time, it's all "just body parts".

That leads to a more relaxed atmosphere for all, doesn't it?

Most definitely!

So what's up with the photgraph?

I had him remove two places on my face that were bothering me.

They weren't moles, just growths of rough, scaly skin that were of concern to me.

He told me they were definitely benign and froze them off.

The whole thing took just a minute - for real.

In another week or so, the skin won't even show signs the growths were ever there.

(smile!)

By noon30 I was home again and looking at deleting some of the grass - I mean, green ground cover, because it certainly isn't true grass - in the front yard.

I decided to wait until the sun had shifted some shade for me.

What to do next?

I thought about the plethora of "friends" fb had listed for me... were they really friends or acquaintances or just fringe folks?

Time to do a bit of weeding out there, perhaps.

So, I did.

I took a good hard look at the list of people linked to me by the title "friend", much as the dermatologist had done earlier at the moles and freckles I have.

Then, just as he had done with the two growths that needed to be removed, I began deleting names from my list.

By the time I was done, forty-two names were gone.

The site still says I have more than 300 "friends", but a good number of those are actually relatives, either by blood or by marriage.

Remember, there were four kids in my family, another three from stepdad Frank, and two half-brothers from my Daddy and Bonnie. Add in the two cousins from (maternal) Aunt Linda, the three cousins from (paternal) Aunt Barbara, and the seven cousins from (maternal) Uncle Jimmy and then go from there to get from my generation to the nieces and nephews of the next generation... and now the great-nieces and great-nephews, although those don't yet have their own fb accounts - but that day is coming, as the eldest of them are soon to be 15 years old.

I know, I could probably still winnow out a few more, but I'm done for now.

I did delete some photo albums and old profile pics and cover photos while I was there.

No sense in letting those sit idle on that site when no one is viewing them, right?

Yeah, that's what I thought, too.

I'll have to remember to do that periodically.

Amazing how much time that ate up!

The sun has passed far enough overhead that the lawnmower is calling me, so time to get that task of deletion done... then to go see "Black Widow"!

That looks to be a good story about family.

(smile!)