So... Alright - Vacations and taking care of ourselves

Episode Date: July 22, 2025

Geoff goes over his recent road-trip to Michigan, and talks about a little personal health scare, and the importance of looking after onesself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Apply now and get up to 60,000 points. Which is a lot of points. For more info, visit bmo.com slash eclipse. That's our website. Terms and conditions apply. I'm Chris Hadfield, astronaut and citizen of planet Earth. Join me on a journey into the systems that power the world. No politics, just real conversations with real people

shaping the future of energy. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. And chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken,

chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, It's a story with a good ending. I don't know that it's a good story. It's just a story, but it it has a good ending.

And hopefully it'll encourage everybody to be proactive and taking care of themselves. I let me start this off by saying I got some good news this morning or rather I had a good procedure this morning. And when I sat down to figure out how to tell this, I started to structure it in my head in the way I normally tell a story where I build suspense and tension and then ultimately the result, I guess the punch line is good news. But that honestly feels a little disrespectful to do it that way to people that have dealt with the very real fear and pain and heartache of living through or experiencing their friends and family living through something as painful and heart wrenching as this medical

issue could be. So I think I'm going to give you the punchline and then I'll go through the story. I just had a mole removed. I had a cancerous mole removed. It feels weird to say that because that word carries so much weight with it and rightly so and what I just did was not a big deal. I had a basal cell carcinoma removed, which is the like, and don't take anything I say as gospel. I'm just relaying what I've heard from doctors and nurses. It's like the least form of cancer a person can get.

It is, they literally, when they told me I had it, they told me I had a baby cancer is what it was. And it is so not a big deal that it feels disingenuous to use it. To use the word almost because it is cancer is such a real and terrible monster, you know, and what this is is not, at least in my case was not terrible. Once again, don't take don't take my word as fact here.

But the nurse told me basal cell carcinoma has a 99 percent survival rate. So, I mean, it's like it's not what you think of when you think of cancer. Right. But. It was very relieving, nonetheless, to get it off my body and not have to worry about it anymore. And I thought I'd tell you the story just because it's something I've been living with for the last couple of months. And I have kind of talked around because I didn't want to communicate it until I had a resolution to the issue. You know what I mean? I don't want to string you guys along while I'm stringing myself along. to the issue, you know what I mean? I don't want to string you guys along while I'm stringing myself along. And so I thought I'll just wait till this whole thing is is all.

Handled, as it were, whatever the outcome may be. And then and then we'll, you know, address it. Right around the time I went on the crew, actually, let me go back even further. I would say somewhere in the last year or so, maybe 18 months. Emily has mentioned to me when she's cutting my hair, because, you know, my wife owns a salon, that she saw a little mole on the on the crown of my head. If you if you look at like the crown of my head and maybe go like an inch to the left,

a little mole forming there. And I'm a moly kind of guy. And I have been to a dermatologist before once and been checked out and was fine. I think I did that last year. And so. I didn't think much of it, you know, and she said it didn't look weird or anything. It just looked like all my other moles, but she she clocked it and pointed it out to me. And I thought, cool, I'll mention that next time I go to the doctor. And then. Sometime around the. She clocked it and pointed it out to me and I thought cool. I'll mention that next time I go to the doctor and then

Sometime around the Trip the cruise we took to Greece and Turkey the mole got I Don't know how else to describe it. It got Chunky Chunky is not the right word. It almost felt like it was filling up with fluid a little bit. Like I could push on it and it was it would move and it was like it became raised. Right. And it's a pretty small mole.

But when you're touching the crown of your head and you can't see it, it feels fucking giant. Right. Anyway, and it kind of bugged me. And I thought, oh, this is annoying. Like, it's not a big deal. It's just a normal mole like all my other normal moles, of course, probably. But I don't like that it's raised because, like, I notice it when I comb my hair or something or, you know, you like you bump your head and there's like a raised

portion right there and you're like, oh, that's fucking weird, you know? And also, you just don't like stuff changing on your body as you get older. But once again, I didn't think too much of it. But on the trip, I was catching up on the Internet and I was reading about a housewife star who had been diagnosed with skin cancer. And her story was heartbreaking and something about it just like clicked in me. And I thought I should maybe take this more more seriously.

And from that second on, I couldn't stop touching it and prodding it and I became very scared of it and then I'd have to talk myself off the ledge. The problem with having a really good imagination is that if it's pointed in the wrong direction, it can be pretty brutal, right? So I kind of put myself through a very quiet mental hell for the majority of the time I was on that cruise.

I was just like inwardly focused on this stupid mole and getting to a doctor as soon as I could, yada, yada, yada. Like I have a tendency to torture myself in situations like that. And I know it's not healthy or appropriate, but in this case, I'm kind of glad I did. Regardless, I got home and immediately scheduled an appointment to go see my doctor.

And I showed it to him and he looked at it and he said, looks so okay to me, looks like a normal mole. I wouldn't worry too much about it. But if you'd like, I give you a referral to go to the dermatologist. I can understand how it might be like, it's in a referral to go to the dermatologist. I can understand how it might be like it's in an awkward place. And so it might be annoying because, like, honestly, like, I could feel it sometimes when I put headphones on and off, like if it could sit on the mole

and that would be uncomfortable after a while. So I have to move my headphones. And so I was like, you know what? Yeah, maybe I could get it removed just for the hell of it. Just want to deal with that anymore. And so he wrote me a referral. And then I never heard from the dermatologist. So I called them and left a message.

And then I didn't hear back. And this is where most of the time I'd probably. And that's not a knock against dermatologist or anything. I'm not complaining. I know people are busy. When I was in the waiting room this morning, it was insanity in there, you know, and stuff just happens. But this is the point where normally I would fall off of the task, right?

Like I made a concerted effort. My doctor told me there was nothing to worry about with this mole. I left a message. I tried to schedule an appointment for a dermatologist that I don't even really need. It would just be cosmetic, you know, or just for peace of mind, whatever. I've put in a decent amount of effort and it hasn't worked. I'll just move on to the next task and forget about this whole thing altogether.

However, something like a week later, I still hadn't heard back. I just thought, no, let's just put the extra effort in. So I called the dermatologist again and I scheduled an appointment. I got him on the phone, I scheduled an appointment. I went in a week later, sat down, was talking to the dermatologist.

He's like poking at it and I said, yeah, I was speaking to my GP, they know each other, they're friends. And I said, he said, it's nothing to worry about, but if I wanted you to take a look at it anyway, just for the hell of it, it's probably not a bad idea, plus maybe get it removed because it's in kind of a weird space.

And he goes, huh, well, I'm gonna have to disagree with him on that. This is definitely cancer, which to hear a doctor say, it was like getting slapped in the face. It was like, it stood me up, you know, mentally. I was like, fuck what? You know, that's not a thing you expect to hear, especially after you got the all clear from a different doctor. And he goes, yeah, that's not a thing you expect to hear, especially after you got the all clear

from a different doctor. And he goes, yeah, it's not a big one. I can see how it wouldn't look like it to a normal doctor, but my many years of experience tell me that, yeah, what you have here is something called a basal cell carcinoma. Now, before we go any further, I know that that word is scary.

I don't wanna scare you. This is not a big deal. This is a mole. This is not skin cancer. This is not a more dangerous form of cancer. This is a self-contained little thing. And we will biopsy it and we will confirm that. And then based on the size and where it is, I will probably send you to a specialist to get what's called a Mose procedure done. They basically will numb your head

and then they will just like scoop out layers of skin and then go test it under a microscope and keep scooping it out. And as long as they find cancerous cells present and then when they stop finding those cells present, they know they've cut enough out, they'll suture you up or whatever and send you on your way. And that is not a big deal.

There is nothing to it, right? And I'm absorbing all this in real time and like going, okay, cool, cool. And then he, while he's telling me all this, he goes, I need to biopsy it though. So he shoots me in the crown of my head with a needle, which is honestly the worst part and numbs my head up. And then he just like cuts what felt like about 90%

of the mole off, sent it off to get it biopsied. Then explains this whole process, the Moe's procedure to me. And once again, calms me down. Literally the nurse tells me, this is what we call baby cancer. I see you in your eyes, you're nervous.

There's nothing to be nervous about. This is not a big deal. This isn't going to cause this is going to kill you. You know, we're just going to get this taken care of. This is going to be some total like a 20 minute procedure, and then you're going to be back on your way. And you'll probably do it again some point, because as my dermatologist told me and my general practitioner told me as well, I've heard it from pretty much every doctor.

If you're a Caucasian living in a place like Texas in the sun, you're going to get basal cell carcinoma at least once in your life. It's almost a given. So just be prepared for it. It's an easy thing to deal with and remove. So he numbs my head up, cuts the thing off, sends me on my way. I'm expecting to get this Mohs procedure done. I'm just waiting for the results to come back and say, yes, it's basal cell carcinoma,

right? Oddly enough, I got the results back confirming this is just like the absurdity of life. I got the results back confirming that it was basal cell carcinoma on a Sunday. Weird that you would get test results into your medical portal on a Sunday, but I did. It was the fifth inning of the Las Vegas Aviators game. I was sitting behind home plate when I got the email confirming that it was a basal cell carcinoma. And then I would need to get this procedure done. So kind of weird timing, because I had just had the elation

of throwing out the first pitch at that game in Vegas and had this wonderful weekend with the guys that was really helping to distract me from all this. And then like literally midway through the game, I get confirmation that this mole is a basal cell carcinoma. Get to Toronto's main venues like Budweiser Stage and the new Roger Stadium with Go Transit. Thanks to Go Transit special online e-ticket fairs,

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So Monday morning, I call the nurse and I say, Hey, I need to schedule this Mo's procedure. And then she tells me something awesome. She goes, you know what, you don't need it. The doctor took a look at the results and he thinks it's small enough and not a big enough deal. It's this thing called nodular. There's different kinds of basal cell carcinoma. I think there's like four or five and they all behave differently, but nodular kind of sticks to itself and is really easy to eliminate. And so she, she, he can just do it in office, take him 10 minutes, just come on in and you don't have to worry about this most procedure. That's a, it's

not necessary, which I took as great news. Right. So this morning I got up first thing in the morning and Emily drove me over to the doctor and we did the procedure. And it was I was in and out in 15 minutes. I was probably in the waiting room 40 percent of the time. I was at the doctor's office. It was so not a big deal and so easy. It was gross and weird

I'll tell you you know the spot on the crown of my head he went in and he numbed it up again with a needle Which is not ideal to get a needle in your skull, you know But it's not the end of the world because it's numbing it as it's pinching or you know piercing or however you want to describe the pain and then he He had this Machine that looked like a loop. And I think he just went in and just scraped, just scraped around,

because I had a little scab there from when they removed it, and just scraped all that tissue, that mold tissue away, right, until it was all gone. And then he cauterized it, which I gotta say, if you can avoid smelling cauterized head flesh. At all, I would recommend doing it. It was not an appetizing smell. There was a little bit of burnt hair in the smell because it's on my scalp.

In addition to everything else that was being burned, the mole, my skin, my whatever else. It was a bouquet. It was a very it was a very yucky bouquet of smells. And I would avoid that at all possible if you can. And then he said, okay, you're good. Put some, you know, some Neosporin on it and I'll see you in six months. But he even said, typically I'll have people come back six weeks after one of these procedures,

but yours once again was so small and so not a big deal that it's so not necessary. So I'll see you in six months. So I'll go back in six months and he'll look at my head and he'll give me the thumbs up and we'll keep going. I tell you this story mostly because I encourage every single one of you to get checked out if you have any concerns.

And I'm not just talking about moles or skin, just any concerns with your health. Go the extra mile. I know it's annoying to go to the doctor. I know it's annoying to schedule appointments. I know it can be really annoying if you leave messages and they don't call you back or they don't get in touch with you.

It's a pain in the ass and we're all busier than we've ever been and running around juggling a million things and just trying to figure it out and nobody has extra money to throw at co-pays just for peace of mind. I get it. But you never know. You never know when that one dumb little mole on the crown of your head could turn out to be the tiniest, babyest form of something more serious. And I probably would have been fine if I mean, I didn't ask this, I'm assuming, but I'm assuming if I could have let it go for a couple of years and it probably still wouldn't have been a big deal. But don't let it go.

You know, take care of it. Go talk to a doctor. If you don't, if you aren't convinced by that doctor, get a second opinion. It's okay to do that. You're advocating for yourself. You know what I mean? You've got to take care of yourself. No one else is going to do it.

Once you become an adult, this is the thing about becoming an adult that is hard to understand and realize, at least it was for me. But when you're 35 years old or 42 years old, your mom isn't going to schedule your doctor's appointment and make sure that you're getting your moles checked out, or that you get the CT scan that you need on your heart, or that you get a colonoscopy. It's up to you to do that. You've gotta be your own parent. You've gotta take care of yourself.

You've gotta look after yourself because no one else is gonna do it. Just got back from an awesome, awesome road trip. We got back, I guess, Sunday, Saturday? Got back Saturday. We drove from Austin up to Grosse Pointe, Michigan, spent 10 days or so with the in-laws and then drove back. We started the drive at like 3 p.m. right after Emily got off work on a Thursday and then drove basically to Texarkana, spent the night, got up the next day, drove to Indianapolis, spent the night, got up the next day, drove into Michigan,

and we drove because we had Albert with us. He's too big to fly. Even if he could fly, he's not well trained enough to be let loose at an airport. He would just explode in a fury of piss and nervous energy trying to meet and greet every single person in the airport. He has an affliction where he has to greet every single human he sees that he comes that he makes eye contact with. And I can't imagine what that would be like in an airport. So we drove and it was fun.

I do. Oh, you know, I should I should issue. I need to issue a retraction and an apology in an upcoming episode of Regulation. I think 64 I referred to Texarkana and Little Rock as dog shit towns. That's unfair. I was coming off of a long drive when I was spending my time there. Little Rock I had some issues with because there wasn't a working bathroom in the fucking town it seemed. And I got lost there because the streets are spaghetti. But it was really unfair of me to shit talk Tex Arcana who was totally fine and just unremarkable in every way. But

definitely not dog shit. So I apologize to the people of Texarkana and of Little Rock for besmirching the good names of your city. I will say we went to the Clinton Library to walk the dog around the grounds there and it was beautiful in Little Rock. So it was fucking hard to get to because it was confusing as shit.

But once we were there, it was quite beautiful. Really big, beautiful covered bridge that goes over the Arkansas, whatever the fucking river there is, the Arkansas River, whatever. And it was neat. It was neat to walk over. So anyway, it took us three days to get up there. And then we did the ride home in like a day and a half. We did like a 16 hour day and then about a seven hour day in that and got home. And it wasn't that bad. I really enjoyed the drive.

I was always a road trip person my entire life. I remember when when my family moved from Beaverton, Oregon back down to Jacksonville, Florida, when I was I think maybe like third grade or so, my mom and my aunt and I drove from Portland down to Jacksonville and we did it over, I wanna say like maybe three weeks, two or three weeks. And we went to places like the Grand Canyon and the Great Space Crater and Lava Tubes. And you just did all of the American road trip tourism stuff.

And ever since that trip, I've been enamored by road trips and I've always been a fan of them. So even though we were just hauling ass to get from point A to point B and not really taking our time or enjoying the area, it's just nice to be on the road. We listened to the Eric Larson book Thunderstruck on the way up, which was really interesting. It was all about Marconi and him getting the wireless off the ground. And then on the way back, we listened to some Raymond Chandler short stories that I found out I had never read.

I thought I'd read every single thing Raymond Chandler had ever done and I found out that I had not actually that there's a decent amount of short stories I wasn't aware of and so that was an amazing discovery for me in the car that I'm very jazzed about getting to dive into. But right now, as an aside, I'm reading that Death Valley book that we talked about

maybe two episodes ago on the Death Valley episode. I'm really committed to the Death Valley thing. I'm gonna see the TV show through. I'm gonna see, I got the Blu-ray of the Death Valley movie with Peter Billingsley in the mail yesterday, and I'm, I don't know, maybe 30 pages into the book. And so I'm gonna sew all that up, and then we'll get back to it on a future episode of this podcast

anyway The point of the trip was to get away of course But also we wanted to tour some homes and start meet with the real estate agent I hadn't Emily had met her before but I hadn't met her yet and you know start looking for a place in the area in earnest. And it was a pretty productive trip in that I had a blast spending time with my in-laws. They are the best. And I continue to just be delighted

that Kent is back in my life. Kent from Masked Ninja, who we worked with at Rooster Teeth 20 something years ago, and now is my brother-in-law. I just, I, it was getting to reconnect with him in my forties and I guess fifties now has just been really awesome. I love being around that dude. I love my father-in-law so much.

I love, we went into a tiger's game, had the time of my life, had some hot dog discoveries that I've covered in the regulation podcast. I won't, won't spoil that here. And, uh, genuinely just had a lovely vacation, didn't do a lot of tourist shit, just did a lot of like hanging around town stuff, you know, other than the Tigers game. One thing we did do that was really great. And by the way, the whole point of this was obviously to talk about the house stuff.

But before we get to that, one thing that we did that was fucking awesome and that I had been threatening to do for a long time and decided screw it I'm gonna pull the trigger the day we got there because we got there kind of early in the morning we were looking for stuff to do we went with Emily's parents and we bought two ebikes that were leaving in Grosse Pointe at her parents house because the area is beautiful and flat and gorgeous and it's just row after row after row of neighborhood of beautiful homes. And it's so fun to ride through. But traveling with our e-bikes is such a nightmare.

And so we went and we found a place that had some good deals. And we bought two little e-bikes to have up there. And then we just rode our dicks off the entire time we were there, which was really great and a great way to experience Michigan. If you haven't, I recommend experiencing it on an e-bike. It's delightful. But we went to a lot of open houses and toured some homes and I saw a couple that I really liked

that weren't quite right for us. And Emily let me know that. And so I was ready to put an offer down on at least one, maybe two, and Emily was like, what are you doing? This doesn't meet our needs at all. And I was like, oh yeah, you're right. I get distracted by shiny things and I just want them. You know what I mean?

Like you dangled a pretty enough house in front of me and I suddenly forget how many bedrooms and bathrooms I require. But it helped us narrow down where we wanna live. And I think we do wanna live, as much as I love the Grosse Pointe area, I think we wanna live in Detroit. I think there's a energy and a vibrancy

and a little bit of an edge to Detroit proper that I just really respond to and I want to participate in and be a part of. And so I just am feeling this emotional pull to Detroit proper. And so I think that's helped us refocus our home search, even though we didn't find the right home. And I don't anticipate we will find the right home for a while. Some of the neighborhoods that we've kind of keyed into that we are most interested

in, maybe even only interested in, are pretty small. And so I think it's going to take a while for the right home to pop up. And I will just continue to be a renter for the foreseeable future while we wait for that to happen. But it was still just a really good trip. It was really fun to travel with Albert. It was kind of a test because, like It was really fun to travel with Albert. It was kind of a test because, like I said, we'll never be able to fly with the guy probably, but if we buy a house up in Michigan and we wanna go spend two weeks or a month there,

whatever, we're not gonna board the dog the entire time, so we're gonna have to bring him up there with us. And let me tell you, he loved Michigan, by the way. Absolutely loved the weather, was really into it, didn't seem to be allergic to any of it, which was nice. But even better than that, he was an awesome road dog. He was an absolute angel on the trip. And it's annoying to be cooped up in a car for 16 hours a day.

Let me tell you, for a human, let alone a poor little puppy dog. But you know, we took a lot of breaks. Luckily there's a bunch of gas stations like Bucky's S gas stations that have really nice dog runs and big play areas. And you know, like I said, we went to the Clinton library and let them run around there. And you know, when we would get to where we were stopping for the night, he and Emily would just go for like a jog and get that energy out.

And he was a pretty happy guy, I gotta say throughout. And I think he would have been happier not being in the car, but he handled it really, really well. And it was very encouraging to this idea that, you know, we'll live in Austin, but own in Michigan and split our time, but spend most of our time in Austin, but still, you know, want to be in Michigan and split our time, but spend most of our time in Austin, but still, you know, want to be in Michigan when we are as a complete unit with the dog and everything. And so

I think that's definitely going to be possible. It's just going to take a while to find the right place, which it's supposed to, you know, shouldn't be easy. I don't think it should be the hardest thing in the world, but I'm not opposed to putting a little effort into finding my future forever home. You know what I mean? If that's what this turns out to be. Anyway, to recap, great vacation. Dog is a good road dog. If you have weird moles, get them checked.

They may be very, very minorly dangerous moles, or they may be more than minorly dangerous. Don't listen to me. Just if you're concerned about something, get it checked out. Be an advocate for yourself. Be your own best friend. Look after yourself. Look out for yourself. Take care of yourself. I want you here for a long time to come. I want to share this planet with you all. I don't want anybody checking out early for something that could have been prevented. All right, let's all hold ourselves and each other accountable and take care of ourselves. I love you dearly. I owe you a song of the episode. I just realized. Okay. Song of the episode is by a band called Screw 32.

It's really good, just straight up punk rock song. I think the structure of the song is fun and interesting, though. It has a dip and then comes back strong. It's called One Time Angels. You can find it on Spotify and YouTube. It's not really a theme to that. It's just a song that popped into my head that I liked a lot 20 years ago. Hopefully you'll like it a little bit now.

All right. This is the end of the show. Well, I don't know. What?