Oh, the indignities of getting older

For those of you what may not have known, I just finished a course of radiation treatments for prostate cancer. There were 42 treatments spread over January, February and early March (5 days a week for 8 1/2 weeks!). Luckily, I had very minor side effects and am now looking forward to a successful conclusion. We won't know for sure for about a year. On Graduation Day, I presented the 3 young women that actually performed the treatments with a tee shirt. Their names are Rosie, Rochelle and Heidi. If you can't read the text, my tee shirt says "I dropped my drawers for Rosie, Rochelle and Heidi" and each of the individual shirts has just their name. Heidi wasn't there when Jan and I made the presentation. The person on the right is Dr. Patrica Seid, my radiation oncologist. If you're wondering what this is about, when receiving a radiation treatment for prostate cancer, you lie flat on a table and they aim the radiation beam at an area below the waist and above the pubic area. Thus, you have to "drop your drawers". Their isn't much immodesty because they cover you with a small towel after they get you lined up on the table. All in all, as cancer treatments go, it was about as non-invasive as you can get. There are gold "seeds" implanted in the prostate to aid in aiming the radiation beam, but we won't go into that!

Take Care,

Bob

Springtime in Wine Country

Hi - The last two weekends, Jan and I have made auto trips through the California wine country, specifically Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley. The primary motivation for doing this is that we are having a spectacular spring. Because of an above average rainfall season, the entire countryside is brilliant green. In addition, the acacia trees are blooming with their masses of yellow blossoms. Also there is a variety of non-bearing pear tree that is common in the area and they are blooming with masses of pure white blossoms. And, there is a small tree (I don't know what it is) that blooms with pink blossoms. And where ever there are vineyards, which is almost everywhere, the vineyard managers let wild mustard grow as ground cover and it blooms with bright yellow blossoms. So, you have the visual impact of rows of dormant vines with a solid mass of yellow in between each row. It is quite spectacular! We get all of these blooming events every year, but we don't usually get all of them at the same time. I'm sorry I didn't think to take a camera so I could capture some of it for you. If you want to see wine country at is its best, early spring and late fall are the best times. In the fall, after the grapes are picked, the grape leaves turn yellow and then gold and then bright red. Depending on the year, it can be quite awesome. This usually happens in late September or early October.

Just wanted to share.

Bob