And There Goes the Rest of February – No Sunny, Mohs Problems – SEPA

A pretty afternoon for a skunking.

I did get out on Sunday February 18 for a good three-hour skunking, but I have pretty much been indoors since then.  I do recall that the day was especially challenging due to high winds, high pressure, bright sun, and likely snow melt knocking down water temperatures all day—the latter can really be the killer in winter.  I think I was 0 for 1 on a soft hit on a jigged bugger, and I did not even spook any other fish on my wade in or out of this creek, which I had chosen because it is a stocked creek with some wild reproduction and would be closed on February 19 due to stocking regulations.  It’s been in decline for the last few years, and the habitat looks pretty bad in large stretches of creek, but there were still some holes that should have held a wild trout or two, or at least a chub.  It ended up just being a walk in the somewhat-snowy woods with a fly rod, which was okay.  I had the place to myself on a weekend afternoon at least and witnessed snow geese by the hundreds.

Welcome to Mohs!

The rest of this month I have been recovering from the dermo knife, as I may have mentioned in earlier posts.  I had Mohs procedure on my neck in May of 2022, but this time it was on my upper lip, so the repair work was basically plastic surgery!  I share the grotesque photos as a reminder to the young bulls to wear sunscreen and cover up.  How Mohs works is that they basically cut a hole out of your skin to see if they can get all the cancerous cells in one cut, but then they have to make a slide and get a pathologist to confirm they got it all before sewing you back up.  More often than not, you have to sit in the waiting room bandaged up waiting for the real(slow)-time results only to have to sit again that same day for more cutting and testing to confirm they got it all.  Only then can they start the repair work, which involves finding skin in the area to create a flap with which to cover the hole.  This last one on my face, which is more complicated and more sensitive, was roughly a six-hour day in the dermatologist’s office!  I am not rocking the hoodie for the chicks these days, and I may have to break out the ridiculous wide-brimmed hat that I have teased Young Kenny about for years a bit more often.  The procedure was a week ago, and the stitches came out today, Leap Day, but I have to limit sun exposure on the scars for another week before I can start putting on sunscreen and other possible irritants.  That does not mean I won’t be in a hoodie, buff, and bandage this upcoming Sunday (and Monday morning), mind you!  A nice soaking rain or two and warm weather to begin March is hard to sit out, even looking like the elephant mitch.