I have been hobbling around like an old man. Oh, that’s right, I am an old man. But this hobbling is due to a chunk of my left leg the size of a silver dollar being removed around a skin cancer. This is the third or fourth I’ve had over the years, one on the top of my head, all the rest on my left shin, though not in the exact same place. I found myself wondering what kind of knot is used to tie off stitches and have learned that the most common is a variation on a reef knot. My left leg is now ready for a gale.
After stitching, the leg was covered from the knee down with what is called a boot, but is really two layers of elastic bandage to reduce swelling. I now have to wrap my leg in cling wrap to take a shower.
Not wanting to rip out the stitches, I’ve already lost two workouts and will miss at least one more before they are removed next week. Sailing this year, I won’t come close to my goal of one hundred anyway.
As a great writer has noted, life is the process of turning baby smooth skin into scar tissue. My skin hasn’t been baby smooth for more than seven decades, and the scars keep coming.
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The photo is another I dug out for the ‘raveling’ article. It shows the new G1 the first and thus far only time that sail has been set and is a cheerful contrast to the gray lowering sky outside our windows from which snow is soon to fall.
