I found a cancer website that listed several blogs of people who have been diagnosed with melanoma. I visited every one. I kind of wish I hadn’t because, except for one, they all end with bad news. Read More...

This is the first in a series of little love letters I am writing to things that make me happy, or have made me happy in the past. Today, Depot Dad rings the train bell for The Waiting by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers.

You can have your Beatles. You can have your Stones. For this child of the 70s, Tom Petty is the center of my rock and roll sensibilities. And for my money, it just doesn’t get any better than his 1981 album Hard Promises. Now Tom has been making great music for over thirty years, so I am well aware of the absurdity of singling out an individual album, let alone a single song to represent his amazing talent. But I can’t help it. Though I love almost everything Tom has done, one song stands apart as the Capital City of Tom Petty Country. That song is The Waiting.

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As I have mentioned here before, last summer I made a list of one hundred things in my life that have brought me happiness. I thought it would be a good idea to post those items here, one at a time, and write little love letter blog posts to each thing. It will help me balance the tone of my blog lately, as well as provide some positive energy for myself. It is good to remember the things we enjoy, and it is very good to share them

Hopefully, I can turn some of my readers on to joys that they might not have otherwise discovered. That would be really cool.

Some of the items are people I have met, like my friend Phill. Sometimes it is a single song, like Tom Petty’s The Waiting. And other times it is the entire output of a single artist, like Paul Klee. Some of the items are favorite memories, like banging on my Aunt Ella’s piano as a three year old. Others are joys I continue to appreciate at this time of my life, like banana cream pie.

Each of these things deserves at least a paragraph or two describing its importance in my life. I hope you agree.

I won’t be posting them in any particular order. I’ll simply write about the ones I’m in the mood to write about. I plan to start tonight, so look for these entries to appear now and then.

I guess I should say right at the outset that if you are one of my readers who is ready for me to get back to my normal single parent blog, I’m going to disappoint you. In fact, I’m likely to disappoint you for some time to come. So if you are ready to get over this whole cancer thing, and switch subjects, then it would probably be a good idea to visit some other blogs. The fact is is that cancer is dominating my waking existence, and though I tried to think of other topics to blog about for today, I kept coming back to one incontrovertible truth: most things that people occupy themselves with, and worry about, and argue about, just do not seem very important to me right now.

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Well, it has been four days since my last post, longer than I usually take. And there isn’t anything here today either. I just wanted to let everyone know that I am fine.

Apparently I pushed myself a little too fast to “get back on the horse” and it caught up with me. I’ve been exhausted the past three days. I’ve been resting and will continue to take it easy over the weekend. So thanks for your patience and I’ll be back soon.

...more face to wash.

I have to say, I am pleasantly surprised by my new look. I hope my readers agree.
When the skin graft fully heals, things should look even better.



By clicking on the “Read More...” link below, you will be taken to a page with more detailed “before and after” photos of the cancer diagnosis and the haircutting process.
WARNING: Some of the pics of the surgical area are a bit intense. View at your own discretion. Read More...

I’m going bald, baby. Read More...

I went to see my doctor yesterday. He removed the pork bun bandage from the side of my head. As he was cutting the stitches, he warned me,”Now prepare yourself. This is going to be quite a change. There will be a sizable dent here.”

He lifted the bandage and inspected the area. The good news? The skin graft took 100%. No dead skin at all. The area will heal nicely. Read More...

After five days of having a skilled hospital staff provide for my every need, it is something of a shock to arrive home and find that I actually have to, you know....DO stuff.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t use a little ingenuity to make my recovery go a bit smoother here. Read More...

Embedded pork bun to be surgically removed on Thursday.

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Well, I just walked in the door from my five days in the hospital. Everything went well and I have a few tales to tell, but I’m just too tired to write about it tonight.

The surgeons were happy. They felt they got out all of the bad stuff. Of course we won’t know for sure what that bad stuff is until we hear back from the latest pathology report, due in about five more days. Meanwhile, I feel I have a new lease on life, as they say. It is the new and improved Depot Dad 2.0.

Right now I’m happy. I had excellent care at UCSF, and indulged in serious low brow television marathons. I mean when else was I going to watch Dumb and Dumber, followed by Joe Dirt, followed by South Park in one go? The giggles did me good. More details tomorrow.

I’m enjoying this clip tonight of Richard Pryor in a prison hospital.



not appropriate for the workplace,
um, unless you have the volume down really
low and snicker into your coffee cup.

I’ll be back early next week.

You know, I’m just vain enough to wonder about what effects my Friday surgery will have on my appearance. My doctor tells me that I will likely have a permanent bald spot on the right side of my head and a permanent depression on the right side of my neck after the removal of the lymph node as well as a fairly prominent scar.

It seems to me that, as long as I am unconscious anyway, and since there will be lots of knives flying, and since I won’t be able to do anything about the results I just mentioned, why not take the opportunity to fix the things that can be fixed, right? Like what? Hey what guy wouldn’t want to wake up after surgery and look in the mirror and see George Clooney looking back at him? Read More...

As a way of saying thank you to all of my readers and well wishers, I have set up a page with a little Halloween project for you and your little ones. It is a little haunted house drawing that can be colored, cut out and assembled. Click the HALLOWEEN TREAT tab on the main navigation bar at the top of this page.

note: This post was inspired by Ms. Single Mama’s recent post about the difficulties of Martha Stewart’s Halloween projects. Hopefully this one is neither too complicated nor too expensive.

I’m 43 years old and I’m amazed at how stupid I still am.

My family recently asked me about my food preferences. This is in anticipation of me recovering from surgery late next week and they are coordinating bringing over some meals. Thank you!!

I wrote up a quick description of the foods I liked and, surprisingly, I liked what I wrote. While it may be of no interest to you, I am posting it here anyway. Y’know, in case any readers wanted to ship Depot Dad some freeze dried meals. (hinta hinta)


To whom it may concern,

Here is a list of Depot Dad’s food preferences... Read More...

Cancer is good for your hit count, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

When it comes to web statistics, I intentionally remain innocent. I am well aware of the fact that I could engineer my site better to increase my traffic and, presumably, any trivial income potential of the site. But the truth is, I just don’t care. I would continue to post here even if the only feedback I ever got was the sound of crickets.

But I got curious about my statistics the other day when I was listening on my car radio to an interview with an aspiring comedian. My ears perked up when he made the comment,”Look, anyone can draw a crowd by standing up and saying ‘I have cancer,’ but try and draw a crowd by standing up and telling jokes!”

Later I laughed in agreement when I decided to check out my stats and found this... Read More...