I dislike flying: the herding, the depressing bag of pretzels, and the claustrophobic cabin. It’s a perfect environment for disease transmission and my immune system can’t protect me. Yet, the opportunity to spend the holidays with our oldest son, my brother, and nieces and nephews compelled my wife and I to fly to the San … More Stanyan Street
Three of the last five years, my wife and I have Christmased in the San Francisco Bay Area. We visit our son, my brother, and a niece. Our routine is similar: movies every night and dinners at an eclectic collection of restaurants. We choose to stay in Oakland near the Bay Area Rapid Transit, or … More Oakland Noir
“Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.” Omar Khayyam Morning: I wash dishes. In front of me, through a window opening to the east, I watch a nuthatch spiral up the trunk of our lilac bush. Rays of sunlight pierce the trembling leaves, and the bird’s eyes wink like sequins. Later, I’d … More Buying Time
I tried to get ahead of spring in late January. I prepped my flower beds with bags of topsoil. I stirred the mucky surface saturated with winter rain. Then, I got sick. One acute upper respiratory infection after another slowed me down. These, paired with a harsh treatment regimen for my cancer, made yard work difficult. Spring … More The University of Cancer, Part 3
As usual, up at 4 AM on Mondays. I like to take my weekly steroids early. The plan is to avoid the first night’s insomnia. I re-supplied the wood stove, then napped on the couch. I awoke an hour later from an exquisite dreamless sleep and felt hot flashes from the drug. So it goes … More Hot Flashes And Cold Realities
We were late before we started. The pecking of my wife’s hiking poles on gravel tick-tocked away the time in Silver Falls State Park. We’d chosen to rent a cabin there for a mid-summer’s getaway. Our creaky bodies appreciate day hikes as opposed to backpacking, an activity for which our future is behind us. So, … More Silver Falls
On July 27th, I began a new treatment regimen for my cancer, multiple myeloma. You can read all about it in The Drill. I am compelled to comment on a series of books I was prompted to read by my oldest son. He lives in Oakland, CA and works as an attorney for the EPA … More A Potpourri of Things
“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” Lao Tzu I have multiple myeloma, a blood cancer of plasma cells. I’ve managed things well but the jinx of my chirpy posts about good cancer fortune had heard enough. Recently, the myeloma aimed its rheumy stinkeye my way … then blinked. My … More Riverwalk
My youngest son makes his living as a builder. Often, trees must be felled to clear the construction site where he works. In the spring and summer, he hauls this wood back home to dry. Fall is the time for splitting and stacking and, recently, I joined him to help. A small mountain of wood awaits … More Wood Splitting
I’ve been taking dexamethasone for my blood cancer, multiple myeloma, since 2007. The synergistic effect of this steroid with myeloma therapies is undisputed. They work, they are inexpensive, and can be taken orally. My cancer continues to wobble without direction, seemingly unable to focus its biology. I attribute much of the myeloma’s poor power of concentration to … More Dancing with Savvy
Good Blood, Bad Blood 