MY WORST WEEK IN DECADES ENDS REASONABLY OKAY

The ordeal began last Thursday, with the gallon drinking session for my colonoscopy on Friday.  I won't know until next week if the polyps were benign or malignant.  But this agony at least led me to Hawaii/Arizona Mystery Woman #2.

Then on Tuesday I had an appointment with a dermatologist, who looked at two skin tags which have been with me for a couple of decades, but recently got sensitive, for they are located where I sit.  The  decision was quickly decisive.  He excised both, with little pain, but, again, had to be sent to the lab for analysis.  He bandaged the wounds and told me to daily change them after taking a shower or bath.

That night I had a practice session, but could not even see the bandages.  I had no cosmetic mirror in the apartment, so, at night, drove all the way to CVS Longs, and bought the only mirror they sold.  I came home and tried it out, but, it was for eyebrow plucking, meaning I could not distinguish anything.

I had several options:

• Go to the clinic in the basement and some nurse could change them.

• Call Mystery Women #1.

• Knock on the door of my neighbor John, who is a doctor.

After some agonizing, I noticed I had a large round mirror on the wall.  That might work.  It was not an easy task to get it down. When I straddled the mirror on the sofa with one leg, I could barely see one bandage.  With the other, the other.  The info sheet said don't use any triple antibiotic or any medicinal ointment.  Simple Vaseline was best.  So I went back to Longs and paid a couple of dollars for the smallest bottle, which is at least ten lifetimes worth of lubricant.  But I succeeded.

So my body has been through a struggle this week.  Mind you, I live at 15 Craigside, where ailments are the foci of dinner table discussions, and virtually everyone has had open heart and brain surgery, joint replacements, and everything else you worry about.  Me?  The last time I spent any time in a hospital was when I was born at Queen's.  I since then haven't needed to stay a night in one, if you don't count that month when my wife was in intensive care and passed away. 

So while my resident friends don't think much of my pains, colonoscopy and skin tag removal are major health issues for me.  Thus, yesterday, after golf, John and I stopped by the Beretania Foodland, and he paid for some poke for him and ahi sashimi for me, as I had found a nice piece of wagyu beef in my freezer, and I was planning to reward my body for surviving this trying week.

My lanai is ideal for this kind of celebration, and note that calamansi citrus is getting close to being large enough for drinks:

So I asked my mind what it wanted to do after dinner, and it told me to play American Grafitti, for Friday night was once the big night out for dancing and music.  At Stanford, we piled into the largest car someone owned and drove across the bay to Garden of Allah, a huge barn where entertainers like Marty Robbins, Chubby Checker and the Marvelettes performed.

American Grafitti was shot in Modesto, a bit further east in California.  The timeframe was 1962, the year I graduated.  I recently reviewed Booksmart, sort of the same kind of movie about one night till the next morning of high school graduates today.  Maybe one or two sounded familiar, but there were 39 songs.  The soundtrack of American Grafitti has 41, and I recognized them all.  Click on them for nostalgia:

Side one (Front side of record one)
No.	Title	Original Artist and year	Length
1.	"(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock"	Bill Haley & the Comets 1954	2:08
2.	"16 Candles"	The Crests 1958	2:48
3.	"Runaway"	Del Shannon 1961	2:18
4.	"Why Do Fools Fall in Love"	Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers 1956	2:14
5.	"That'll Be the Day"	The Crickets 1957	2:14
6.	"Fannie Mae"	Buster Brown 1959	2:52
7.	"At the Hop"	Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids 1973	2:25
8.	"She's So Fine"	Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids 1973	2:18
9.	"The Stroll"	The Diamonds 1957	2:26
10.	"See You In September"	The Tempos 1959	2:03

Side two (Front side of record two)
No.	Title	Original Artist and year	Length
1.	"Surfin' Safari"	The Beach Boys 1962	2:05
2.	"(He's) The Great Imposter"	The Fleetwoods 1961	1:33
3.	"Almost Grown"	Chuck Berry 1959	2:09
4.	"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"	The Platters 1958	2:37
5.	"Little Darlin'"	The Diamonds 1957	2:04
6.	"Peppermint Twist"	Joey Dee and the Starlighters 1961	1:58
7.	"Barbara Ann"	The Regents 1961	2:14
8.	"The Book of Love"	The Monotones 1958	2:17
9.	"Maybe Baby"	Buddy Holly 1957	2:01
10.	"Ya Ya"	Lee Dorsey 1961	2:22
11.	"The Great Pretender"	The Platters 1955	2:35

Side three (Back side of record two)
No.	Title	Original Artist and year	Length
1.	"Ain't That a Shame"	Fats Domino 1955	2:31
2.	"Johnny B. Goode"	Chuck Berry 1958	2:38
3.	"I Only Have Eyes for You"	The Flamingos 1959	3:09
4.	"Get a Job"	The Silhouettes 1958	2:37
5.	"To the Aisle"	The Five Satins 1957	2:44
6.	"Do You Want To Dance"	Bobby Freeman 1958	2:35
7.	"Party Doll"	Buddy Knox 1957	1:54
8.	"Come Go with Me"	The Del-Vikings 1956	2:37
9.	"You're Sixteen - You're Beautiful (And You're Mine)"	Johnny Burnette 1960	1:56
10.	"Love Potion No. 9"	The Clovers 1959	1:53

Side four (Back side of record one)
No.	Title	Original Artist and year	Length
1.	"Since I Don't Have You"	The Skyliners 1958	2:35
2.	"Chantilly Lace"	The Big Bopper 1958	2:21
3.	"Teen Angel"	Mark Dinning 1959	2:35
4.	"Crying in the Chapel"	Sonny Till & the Orioles 1953	3:04
5.	"A Thousand Miles Away"	The Heartbeats 1957	2:25
6.	"Heart and Soul"	The Cleftones 1961	1:49
7.	"Green Onions"	Booker T. & the M.G.'s 1962	2:25
8.	"Only You (And You Alone)"	The Platters 1955	2:35
9.	"Goodnight, Well it's Time to Go"	The Spaniels 1954	2:43
10.	"All Summer Long"	The Beach Boys 1964	2:05

The film cost $0.777 million to make, and earned $140 million.  You can click on this to get the details, but here is where Harrison Ford made that noteworthy impression to play Han Solo in all those Star Wars, then Indiana Jones.  The blonde in that T-Bird was Suzanne Sommers.  The film earned 96/84 ratings from Rotten Tomatoes.

I will close by sending you to PBS, for tonight they again show My Music:  Pop, Rock and Soul.  You've no doubt seen it before, for I remember a 2013 version.  Maybe they'll add new tunes, but the standard song list has:

"Daydream Believer" — Davy Jones
"Kicks" — Paul Revere & the Raiders
"Turn Around, Look at Me" — The Vogues featuring Bill Burkette and Hugh Geyer 
"Somebody to Love" — Jefferson Starship
"White Rabbit" — Jefferson Starship
"Mr. Tambourine Man" — Roger McGuinn
"Louie, Louie" — The Kingsmen
"When a Man Loves a Woman" — Percy Sledge
"A Summer Song" — Chad & Jeremy
"Devil with a Blue Dress" — Mitch Ryder
Theme from Hawaii Five-O — The Ventures
"Ooo Baby Baby" — The Miracles
"Knock on Wood" — Eddie Floyd
"I'm into Something Good" — Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone 
"I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am" — Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone 
"There's a Kind of Hush" — Herman's Hermits starring Peter Noone 
"This Diamond Ring" — Gary Lewis & The Playboys
"96 Tears" — ? Mark & The Mysterians
"Hey There Lonely Girl" — Eddie Holman
"Na, Na, Hey, Hey, Goodbye" — Gary DeCarlo of the STEAM hit
"Classical Gas" — Mason Williams

Some of the above clips are from Dick Clark and other shows of that era.  See how they've aged.  Peter Noone and his Hermits have three songs because he usually  hosts.

-