A Punch In The Face & Other Tidbits

With cheeks flushed and hotter than hell, I remained cool everywhere else. It’s a metaphor. It’s reality. It’s a lie. We all must choose which—every day—these days.

The Gang of 45 was bad. The Gang of 47 is worse. It’s stopped me from posting more often. I’m not sure what to say, or what to do.

There were two things happening: my cheeks would flush red and the skin temp would climb to 101º or more. while the rest of my body temp was normal. The other thing happening was I was getting these red rashes on the top of my right cheek that would come and go—until they decided not to. I Google-diagnosed myself many times over. It was time for real answers. So off to the dermatologist I went.

I knew I had to go because it could have been Sarcoid related. After a punch in the face, AKA a puncture biopsy of the rash, it was determined it was a deep fungal infection. Ewwwwwwwwww!

All in all not a pretty sight—before or after.

An oral anti-fungal med for 2 weeks and it was gone. But now I had a “cute” scar on my cheek to remember this all by. Grrrrr.

Since I started this post several weeks ago, I recently have started reposting my Instagram posts on my blog. Don’t know if it’s a run-up to leaving Insta, (I’m so done with Threads) or just an easier way to be more frequent about posting. Two years ago I took my Facebook posts and turned them into my “The Adventures Of IndeMoJo” series. This time around I’m making it easier on myself & my readers. More photos and less verbiage? It’s also something for me to keep busy. Yeah. Keeps me off the streets & out of the heat—on so many levels.

As much as we all complain about it, Facebook is one of those tools that helps rekindle lost connections. So was the situation a few days ago.

While looking through my FB memories for that day (something I do every morning at my computer—with coffee in hand) I came across a post from a few years ago that had replies. One of the people that replied was an old CW Post college buddy: Sean Kennedy. When I saw his name I had to do a triple-take. How in the world did I miss that comment so many years ago? Needless to say … went to his profile, scanned for any MAGA related nonsense—there was none—and proceeded to do a friend request.

Hot damn! Got a reply, his cell number & a request to call. So I did! In one of those: how do you catch up for a 43 year absence in a 30+ minute phone call? Somehow we did. Or at least as much as time would allow.

He was a preparing to go on stage with his reggae band at the Rosendale NY Street Fair. That in and of itself was pretty wild. Reggae band you say? That’s all I listen to these days—I told him. We talked right up until he had to go up on stage with his 2 grown sons who were also musicians & song writers in the band. Wild!

Anywho … made me think about some old photos I had taken of Sean way back when we were at Post. Of course I found the slides in my archives, scanned them, and texted him a few a few hours later.

We had both thought about each other over the years … but it took an overlooked Facebook comment for us to reconnect all these years later. I’m glad we did! I’m glad I looked at the comments & this time read more closely.

These are the photos I took at the place he worked at while at Post, and the surrounding Plum Island Lighthouse area on Long Island.

This post started out a little too heavy & a little too real. But that’s the nature of life: mixing the good & the bad. The personal. The political. The pain. The joy.

And in the end … I have to rethink this blog. I need to write more. But I also need to have new experiences to write about. Writing about home life only can be B O R I N G! But that too is life. Guess we’ll see.

I’m glad to have reconnected to an old friend & to think about new possibilities. Can’t get more positive than that!

You may now return to your daily doom scrolling.