If you don’t know what a lipoma is, then you’re not a regular watcher of the TV show “Dr. Pimplepopper.” I’ll save you the trouble of possibly being grossed out by that show. A lipoma is a non-cancerous growth or mass of fatty tissue.

I felt badly leaving the “old boy” for his overnight medical stay. I also felt badly at not having been able to consult with Gov. Kristi Noem in South Dakota when we were on our recent road trip. I wanted to consult with Kristi about Archer. But she wasn’t available when we visited the state capitol in Pierre.

(I wasn’t going to “go there” with that reference – but I guess I couldn’t resist) (Yes, I actually went into the reception area of her office. And, no, I would not have actually said anything about dogs to her or any of her staff.)

The next stop Tuesday morning, was to have the “kind of a bad day” episode of getting both of my knees injected with “Euflexxa” (hyaluronic acid – sounds yummy, right?) for the second week in a row. It’s a three weeks in a row treatment for relieving knee pain due to arthritis. Getting needles in the knees isn’t my idea of a good time, but, I actually think the shots are helping my knee discomfort otherwise.

After those events, we were headed for home cruising along Highway 89 when we came up behind a UDOT road line painting crew. They were painting the white solid line on the right-hand side of our lane. I love that our Department of Transportation takes care of our roads so well. I really do. It’s summer time, so it’s expected that there’s going to be construction and maintenance going on.

There were two vehicles involved in this crew of road painters. One of them followed the actual paint sprayer vehicle with the driver holding his arm out the window. The message of his gesture, with the palm of his hand facing us, was easy to interpret, “stay back – don’t pass.” I put my trust in him. We followed for a mile or two at a slow pace until he vigorously waved his arm in a fast-circular motion conveying the message, “Step on it and pass us or you’re going to be stuck forever back there.”

I stepped on it. I passed, even though we were in a “yellow center line, no pass zone.” All was well.

After getting home and going into the house to do a thing or two before going to work, I returned to the truck. I was shocked at what I saw. The driver’s side doors, running board, and fenders, were splattered and speckled with bright yellow paint.

Obviously, the portion of the yellow road line we had driven across wasn’t dry yet from painting. Our hand signal dude was unaware that he was directing us to cross a line that shouldn’t have been crossed.

Let me say that it’s good to know people at the auto parts stores. Larry Lund at Main Auto in Manti was my rescuer. He came out to the truck with a rag and an aerosol cleaner product and tested it on the yellow paint. With some effort, it worked. He said, “you better get into a shady spot and get to work on this right now.”

I told him that I kind of had an emergency job going on at work. He said, “you’ve got a bigger emergency going on right now with this truck.” My wife and I worked on the truck for more than an hour. Larry came up to the house and checked on us. The gritty (there are tiny, reflective, glass beads in the paint), bumblebee yellow paint eventually all got cleaned off.

The next day we returned to pick up Archer. He was wearing a “cone of shame” around his neck to keep him from licking or pulling at his bandage. On the road, we noticed evidence of multiple splattering drive throughs on the yellow lines. I hope other drivers were as lucky as we were at getting the paint removed.

I was reminded of something that my driver’s education teacher used to say over and over again. He told us that when we were driving and we came up on another vehicle that we wanted to pass, we should always ask ourselves, “Is this pass necessary?”

I still ask myself this question frequently. I ask it a lot as I drive in Salt Creek Canyon above Nephi or on the twisty road up by Birdseye. Often the answer is that travelling slower than I’d like to go for those few miles isn’t worth the risks, unless there’s a great opportunity for passing.

Should I have followed the UDOT guy’s direction and passed on a yellow line last Tuesday? I don’t know. But, it seemed like a good idea at the time. — Merrill