I would have written about the necessary culling of a tree in our front garden, but Libran Writer did it so much better that I’ll help you jump to her post.
Tree Surgery
cancer
Movember Again
It’s the middle(ish) of November and so it’s Movember again. Male sports is once again a showcase for the annual 70’s pornstar moustache revival. I used to do Movember fund raising when I had the enthusiasm that you get after you or someone close has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Now I prefer to publicise the risks of cancer. I prefer to encourage men to have an annual screening specifically for prostate cancer.
Prostate Cancer Kills
I heard today that English goalkeeping legend Ray Clemence has died. Now, I’m not a big football fan despite growing up with compulsive enthusiasms for the top English leagues. While I’ve always preferred rugby, years in America taught me that any sport can catch your imagination and act as a gateway to a new culture. I learned that baseball is more pointless than cricket, that American Football is seriously bad for your health and that to watch basketball, is to see how evolution works, but more slowly.
Seeking a hopeful note in a journal on cancer (from this date 2014).
250 and Still Typing
This is the 250th journal in my daily succession. It’s a milestone so strange to me that I wondered what to write about. Two hundred and fifty is, more or less, the length of our family pandemic lockdown. It’s the time since I was discharged from prostate cancer care, a milestone trivialised on learning at the same place and time that there was another cancer attacking the family.
On Biopsy Disaster
Ignorance
When I was 59, an office based geoscientist, I had a BMI of about 24. I liked to maintain my fitness by long distance hill walking (though not fell running). I enjoyed good food and didn’t smoke or drink alcohol. So I was surprised when my PSA was found to have jumped to 9.7 in the sixteen months between two blood tests.
18/20 Species
We walked for an hour or so in Marlay Park today. ‘Here’s where the Wicklow Way starts’ I said, as I’ve said before. ‘Perhaps I’ll walk it this coming weekend?’
‘No, you need to build up to long walks first’ was the sensible reply. This is fair because I’ve been off the trail for over six months and with six decades under my belt, everything needs to be measured.
