{"id":37733,"date":"2026-11-03T13:34:26","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T20:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=37733"},"modified":"2026-11-03T13:35:49","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T20:35:49","slug":"birthdays-biopsies-photoblog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=37733","title":{"rendered":"Birthdays & Biopsies Photoblog"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_0975\"<\/a>I mentioned the swelling near my right jawbone in a previous post<\/a><\/strong>. Here’s the latest: a doctor at Tucson Pathology extracted some tissue this morning and examined it under a microscope, and now we know it’s a benign tumor (a Warthin’s tumor<\/a><\/strong>, to be precise). Key word: benign.<\/p>\n

Whew, dodged another bullet! My normal inclination would be to leave it alone, but the pathologist says harmless though it may be, it’s likely to grow and really should be removed. I’m seeing my regular doctor Friday and we’ll discuss the options.<\/p>\n

The tissue extraction was interesting, if unpleasant. The pathologist performed a fine needle biopsy, which was done without anesthesia. It’s like getting a novocaine shot without the novocaine. Not only that, once the needle’s in they poke it around to get samples from different parts of the tumor, so you feel plenty of pressure and prodding. I was a big boy and didn’t cry. Donna rewarded me with a McDonald’s mocha frapp\u00e9 on the way home.<\/p>\n

I’ll continue to keep you posted.<\/p>\n

\n

We celebrated my Halloween birthday with a long weekend in Las Vegas, visiting our son Gregory, daughter-in-law Beth, and grandkids Taylor and Quentin. We’re home now, reunited with our puppies. The drive between Tucson and Las Vegas … 400 miles and 8 hours long … grows more enervating and exhausting the older we get, so you’ll understand what we mean when we say we love the trip but hate the drive.<\/p>\n

Greg and Beth, in addition to feeding and feting us, gave us a new camera bird feeder. This one will go by the palo verde out front, where there’s a larger and more diverse flock of birds than out back, where the older feedercam is mounted. I’ll install it later this week, once I figure out where to put the solar panel necessary to keep it charged and running. But that’s not all … Greg took me to the Citizen outlet and bought me a new wristwatch. Hot damn!<\/p>\n

Did I say “photoblog” in the title of this post? Better get to it then.<\/p>\n

Since I became an octogenarian over the weekend, I gave ChatGPT a recent selfie and asked it to make me look my age. I’ll let you figure out which is the Before and which is the After.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"IMG_8491\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"IMG_3131\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Here are the Tucson and Las Vegas Woodfords (daughter Polly was house-sitting for us in Tucson and missed this reunion).<\/p>\n

\"00E04692-A181-456A-891D-AE137D803A40\"<\/a>
L to R: me, Donna, Quentin, Beth, Gregory, Taylor, Jordan (Taylor’s husband)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Watch shopping in downtown Las Vegas with Number One Son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"IMG_5421\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"IMG_5424\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Aged Boomers at the Lake Las Vegas Hilton. Jesus, get a room!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"Las<\/a><\/td>\n\"Las<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

It’s good to be home. So far, being 80’s pretty good too.<\/p>\n

\n

It’s election day here in the USA. After 2016 and then 2020, I have no sense how my fellow Americans might vote … not a clue … but am cautiously optimistic and will be watching Rachel and company tonight, along with many of you.<\/p>\n

See you on the other side, friends!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We celebrated my Halloween birthday with a long weekend in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4432,18,10,2,1601,8],"tags":[3000,4961,4960,57,4962],"class_list":["post-37733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-seiko","category-consumerism","category-current-events","category-personal","category-photoblogging","category-politics","tag-electionday","tag-benignbump","tag-bigbirthday","tag-family","tag-newwatch"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37733"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37743,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37733\/revisions\/37743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}