(Cartoon by Steve Benson in the Arizona Republic)
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
LEONARD LIVE IN LONDON
I have stated before (ad nauseum) that I don't really care for Leonard Cohen's singing. But he gave a great performance in London singing his song "Hallelujah". So for those who love him and those who don't, take a look. And note: I can be swayed.
ROCKY RIDGE
Have you ever wanted to live in a house high on a hill, surrounded by BIG rocks? Well, someone does in Prescott, Arizona.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Saturday, October 13, 2012
A GUEST BLOGGER'S STORY
I received an email today from a former colleague of mine in Indianapolis. I knew of his battle with cancer previously. But I thought this piece of writing was so beautifully done that I asked his permission to post it on my blog. He generously granted that permission so here's the story.
I am a fairly emotional person. Apparently I display it only through my work. Now, that I think about it all of my feature reporting for TV and Radio has been based on what I feel must be right. Then I would find someone with those virtues and extol them. These found me.
Just the other day as I got out of my car a man (and his wife) came towards me from their position of waiting. I thought it might be for a bus, but they were not in the correct spot. Maybe he would ask. Then he told me they were waiting for a taxi to “go see the maples.” My first impression was that they were Japanese. He corrected me. “We are Korean, visiting from Chicago. We came by the big GreyHund last night. I have been here 35 years and no learn English.”
I convinced him his language was fine. I did not tell him he was miles away from the color of “the maples.” Then the taxi came to take them back downtown. They could not get a hotel there last night since they had no credit card. Somebody referred them five miles out of the center city for a fifty-dollar night. We met; I did not really help. I did not give directions miles away to the colorful trees. But he felt the need to talk about it. He came to me with her in tow. Then they were gone.
At their elderly age they were ready to get up and go to see things. They had no plan. They just went. They had a purpose. And they just went. Happily.
This was the same day I went… to hear the beginning of my prognosis for prostate cancer which has become very aggressive since we first took note in early December, last year. Since then there has been a plan and a purpose but it did not seem obvious to me. Every three months I receive a hormone shot to maintain the speed of the cancer growth into the lymph system. Happily, the PSA (prostate specific antigen) test shows a great reduction in numbers indicating cancer. But that is almost too late.
A full-body bone scan early this year indicated the presence of lesions in my liver, possibly in my pelvis, and maybe more. A month ago it was determined with a new MRI that a major growth on my left femur just below the hip was the reason for a major complaint while attempting walking. That curtailed my part-time position as a tour-guide inside the Lucas Oil Stadium for a while.
Immediate surgery to “burn” the tumor off the bone with RFA (radio frequency ablation) proved it was the same cancer which had traveled from the prostate.
Confirmation is one thing. Consternation is another. We are advised as older males to be constantly vigilant for the prostate problem. It can arrive in young males too. It is the most prevalent cancer in males, after skin cancer. Prostate Cancer can start with no symptoms. Apparently mine started without me. It was immediately labeled aggressive and has been so. I have been told not all cancers are detected. I have one which slipped through.
The doctors mentioned many months ago that there would be no cure, just maintenance. Maybe two to five years of maintenance. They mentioned it again this past week… along with the fact that several other methods could be used, including some new ones just on the market. Each month there will be a shot (Xgeva) to maintain the bone loss (which allowed the tumor outside the femur) plus another attempt to curtail the growth in the lymph system.
Many friends constantly ask the regular question “what did the doctor say?” This, then, is an effort to compile the words he said along the way. Mostly it has been a wait and see procedure. Now, it will be a more aggressive approach to an aggressive cancer.
For now, there is no radiation or chemo planned but that may change.
I am an emotional man who lives alone, but I am not lonely. I have many friends around the world. And I have my family here in Indianapolis, my hometown. On the way home from the doctor I became suddenly aware of my future while listening to one of my favorite styles of music. It prompted many tears… of realization of how good I have it with my medical treatment.
I have a plan. I am pleased, too, that I met that Korean couple just passing through Indianapolis to see “the maples.” I will continue to follow this adventure of mine, as far as it goes.
---Will Murphy
= = = = = = = = = =
I am a fairly emotional person. Apparently I display it only through my work. Now, that I think about it all of my feature reporting for TV and Radio has been based on what I feel must be right. Then I would find someone with those virtues and extol them. These found me.
Just the other day as I got out of my car a man (and his wife) came towards me from their position of waiting. I thought it might be for a bus, but they were not in the correct spot. Maybe he would ask. Then he told me they were waiting for a taxi to “go see the maples.” My first impression was that they were Japanese. He corrected me. “We are Korean, visiting from Chicago. We came by the big GreyHund last night. I have been here 35 years and no learn English.”
I convinced him his language was fine. I did not tell him he was miles away from the color of “the maples.” Then the taxi came to take them back downtown. They could not get a hotel there last night since they had no credit card. Somebody referred them five miles out of the center city for a fifty-dollar night. We met; I did not really help. I did not give directions miles away to the colorful trees. But he felt the need to talk about it. He came to me with her in tow. Then they were gone.
At their elderly age they were ready to get up and go to see things. They had no plan. They just went. They had a purpose. And they just went. Happily.
This was the same day I went… to hear the beginning of my prognosis for prostate cancer which has become very aggressive since we first took note in early December, last year. Since then there has been a plan and a purpose but it did not seem obvious to me. Every three months I receive a hormone shot to maintain the speed of the cancer growth into the lymph system. Happily, the PSA (prostate specific antigen) test shows a great reduction in numbers indicating cancer. But that is almost too late.
A full-body bone scan early this year indicated the presence of lesions in my liver, possibly in my pelvis, and maybe more. A month ago it was determined with a new MRI that a major growth on my left femur just below the hip was the reason for a major complaint while attempting walking. That curtailed my part-time position as a tour-guide inside the Lucas Oil Stadium for a while.
Immediate surgery to “burn” the tumor off the bone with RFA (radio frequency ablation) proved it was the same cancer which had traveled from the prostate.
Confirmation is one thing. Consternation is another. We are advised as older males to be constantly vigilant for the prostate problem. It can arrive in young males too. It is the most prevalent cancer in males, after skin cancer. Prostate Cancer can start with no symptoms. Apparently mine started without me. It was immediately labeled aggressive and has been so. I have been told not all cancers are detected. I have one which slipped through.
The doctors mentioned many months ago that there would be no cure, just maintenance. Maybe two to five years of maintenance. They mentioned it again this past week… along with the fact that several other methods could be used, including some new ones just on the market. Each month there will be a shot (Xgeva) to maintain the bone loss (which allowed the tumor outside the femur) plus another attempt to curtail the growth in the lymph system.
Many friends constantly ask the regular question “what did the doctor say?” This, then, is an effort to compile the words he said along the way. Mostly it has been a wait and see procedure. Now, it will be a more aggressive approach to an aggressive cancer.
For now, there is no radiation or chemo planned but that may change.
I am an emotional man who lives alone, but I am not lonely. I have many friends around the world. And I have my family here in Indianapolis, my hometown. On the way home from the doctor I became suddenly aware of my future while listening to one of my favorite styles of music. It prompted many tears… of realization of how good I have it with my medical treatment.
I have a plan. I am pleased, too, that I met that Korean couple just passing through Indianapolis to see “the maples.” I will continue to follow this adventure of mine, as far as it goes.
---Will Murphy
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Thank you, Will, for sharing your story and all the best of luck with your treatment.
Friday, October 12, 2012
AUTUMN THOUGHTS
There is no question about it. Autumn has arrived. Tree leaves are either changing color or dropping to the ground or both. The temperature has nose-dived. Here in Prescott Valley at 11:15 on this Friday morning the temperature outside is 53 degrees Fahrenheit. There are water puddles on the ground from an overnight rain. A friend who lives in Flagstaff, which is a couple of thousand feet higher than here, says she turned on her furnace for the first time last night. And a mountain near her has snow on it for the first time this year.
I love cold, rainy days if I can stay inside. When I was a teenager in North Dakota, I had a tiny room with a steam radiator, an old armchair by a window that looked out on the outside world, books and my short wave radio. I would tune the bands and listen to stations from London, from Moscow, from Quito, Ecuador, and, of course, the Voice of America. I escaped that cold rainy (or more likely, snowy) world outside.
Some years later, a ham radio operator in New Mexico told me he used to like to turn off the lights in his room, lean back in his comfortable recliner and listen to tunes from Radio Tahiti. It helped him wipe out the stresses from his job.
Nowadays I no longer have a short wave radio but I've got something even better - the Internet. There are thousands of radio stations I can connect with and listen to their programming as if it were a local station. No fading, no static. Of course, that kind of takes some of the romance out of it but I still like it better than the old "analog" days.
And there are Internet radio sources. One of my favorites is Pandora. Right now I have it on and am listening to some soft jazz on French Cafe Radio. I also have Brazilian Radio, the Hot Club of San Francisco, the Turtle Island String Quartet, and Le Surdoue on my favorites list. One can search by artist, genre or composer to find just the type of music you like. As you can probably tell, I favor soft sounds at home When I'm in my car the radio is usually tuned to NPR although sometimes I tune in a Classic Rock station.
Radio has always been a big part of my life. It began with a big floor model Philco in our living room on which I listened to the Lone Ranger, Fibber McGee and Molly, the Great Gildersleeve and Amos and Andy. Then I moved on to my short wave period. Then I became a ham radio operator. Later I went to work at several radio stations, work that finally took me away from North Dakota to Indianapolis. I had also worked for some television stations in North Dakota and that experience helped me land a t.v. job in Phoenix. Almost 20 years later I found myself out of work and a couple of years from Social Security. I landed a job with a radio station in Prescott and spent three years there.
Oh, I should include our period in the late 80's/early 90's when we took an early retirement and moved to Mexico. My ham radio "rig" kept us in touch with family and friends back in the United States.
Well. This has covered a lot of territory since I began writing about autumn. I've been meaning to take some pictures of the pumpkins everywhere, of the fall flower displays at stores, and probably some of my immediate surroundings. But today, I'm just going to stay inside where it's warm, listening to Louis Armstrong singing and playing "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" on Pandora.
I love cold, rainy days if I can stay inside. When I was a teenager in North Dakota, I had a tiny room with a steam radiator, an old armchair by a window that looked out on the outside world, books and my short wave radio. I would tune the bands and listen to stations from London, from Moscow, from Quito, Ecuador, and, of course, the Voice of America. I escaped that cold rainy (or more likely, snowy) world outside.
Some years later, a ham radio operator in New Mexico told me he used to like to turn off the lights in his room, lean back in his comfortable recliner and listen to tunes from Radio Tahiti. It helped him wipe out the stresses from his job.
Nowadays I no longer have a short wave radio but I've got something even better - the Internet. There are thousands of radio stations I can connect with and listen to their programming as if it were a local station. No fading, no static. Of course, that kind of takes some of the romance out of it but I still like it better than the old "analog" days.
And there are Internet radio sources. One of my favorites is Pandora. Right now I have it on and am listening to some soft jazz on French Cafe Radio. I also have Brazilian Radio, the Hot Club of San Francisco, the Turtle Island String Quartet, and Le Surdoue on my favorites list. One can search by artist, genre or composer to find just the type of music you like. As you can probably tell, I favor soft sounds at home When I'm in my car the radio is usually tuned to NPR although sometimes I tune in a Classic Rock station.
Radio has always been a big part of my life. It began with a big floor model Philco in our living room on which I listened to the Lone Ranger, Fibber McGee and Molly, the Great Gildersleeve and Amos and Andy. Then I moved on to my short wave period. Then I became a ham radio operator. Later I went to work at several radio stations, work that finally took me away from North Dakota to Indianapolis. I had also worked for some television stations in North Dakota and that experience helped me land a t.v. job in Phoenix. Almost 20 years later I found myself out of work and a couple of years from Social Security. I landed a job with a radio station in Prescott and spent three years there.
Oh, I should include our period in the late 80's/early 90's when we took an early retirement and moved to Mexico. My ham radio "rig" kept us in touch with family and friends back in the United States.
Well. This has covered a lot of territory since I began writing about autumn. I've been meaning to take some pictures of the pumpkins everywhere, of the fall flower displays at stores, and probably some of my immediate surroundings. But today, I'm just going to stay inside where it's warm, listening to Louis Armstrong singing and playing "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" on Pandora.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
PHANTOM FRANK
I must confess I had never heard of Phantom Frank until our doorbell rang last night. When I went to answer it I found a plate of delicious brownies, a picture of Phantom Frank (looking curiously like the Frankenstein monster) and a bit of doggerel telling me I must post the picture on my front door after making two copies of it and the poem and then deliver some treats to two of my neighbors along with the picture and the poem.
Well!
Never one to stand down from a challenge, SWMBO got busy in the kitchen today and these are the result.
Well!
Never one to stand down from a challenge, SWMBO got busy in the kitchen today and these are the result.
They are her own invention - Oatmeal Cranberry Butterscotch Chip cookies. Taking it upon myself to determine their quality I sampled one. Two actually. They are delicious. They will be delivered in the same way we got ours sometime after dark. I trust they will be enough to protect us from Phantom Frank. The final condition is the one doing the delivering must not be seen.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = =
On another front, quite different, one of my former colleagues in the television news game has been named the Best Veteran Television Anchor in Phoenix by Phoenix Magazine. Here's the picture that accompanied the honor, given to Lin Sue Cooney.
She looks considerably less touseled when she's on the air but just as beautiful.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = =
And finally, in case no one has pointed it out to you yet, today is one of those magic dates - October 11, 2012, or 10-11-12!
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