I Suffer From Spring Giddiness

To avoid real work yesterday, I finished cleaning the pool and mowed the front yard where the amaryllis bed at our front door just begins to bloom. Some stalks stand tall; other just begin to emerge from the soil. Looks as though between 20 and 30 stalks with clusters of flowers are set to open. I photographed this first cluster:

I need to be careful working in that flower bed.

Anyone who steps in that flower bed is suddenly jerked up into the air like a hooked fish. They disappear screaming up into the sky and are never seen again.

The half-buried coffee mug and the shape of the bed explain why:

Click photo to enlarge.

Yesterday also marked the 20^th Anniversary of the opening of Jacksonville’s Dames Point Bridge. The main 1,300-foot center span is 175 feet above the St. Johns River. The bridge is held up by 144 steel cables backed by 471-foot towers.

The anniversary is significant to me because back before the bridge opened, I wrote an article for a local magazine about the construction. Researching the article enabled me to tour the construction site and I went up to the top of the cable tower on the right in the photo. I rode up the outside of the tower in an open wire basket/elevator lifted on cables by a crane on top of that 471 foot tower.

Breezy up there.

Thrilling panoramic view from the ocean all the way across this city I love.

Then I got to ride down in that swinging basket again—not a typical day for a history writer who’s mostly used to library research.

I can’t believe that happened 20 years ago.

Seems more recent.

Makes me feel old.

Speaking of old, in other happy news, an Associated Press report yesterday confirms my decision about how to handle my prostate cancer.

An American Medical Association study, "reinforces the message that we are over diagnosing prostate cancer," said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld of the American Cancer Society.

The report says, “Most men who undergo a biopsy for an abnormal PSA test don't turn out to have prostate cancer; high PSAs often signal a benign enlarged prostate. Of those who do have cancer, there's no proof yet that early detection saves lives — as most prostate tumors grow so slowly that had they not been screened, those men would have died of something else without the anxiety”.

I’m way ahead of the AMA.

Of course, in the nature of things, the scientists may change their findings next week; seems they come up with a new treatment (or decide that the old treatment is killing you) every other week.

However when this first came up I read the literature, prayed for wisdom, consulted various doctors, talked over our sexual options with Ginny, and decided not to treat my cancer at all.

As I told Dr. Oz, my oncologist, “It’s my prostate. Don’t you touch it”.

I think I made the right choice.