2 red foxes in 2 days!

For two days now, I've seen red fox near the house! Here is a pic of yesterday's fox, with its mangy tail.

Red Fox, originally uploaded by Lipwak.

I also submitted this to the Journal News and they had it on their website!


Here is some video I shot with my still camera, so it is low resolution, of the fox I saw today. This one's tail was fine. I edited some of it out including seeing him climb a pile of dirt in a neighbor's yard.



I'm all excited about this and hope to get better video soon.

prostate biopsy

I wanted to share this in case anyone has concerns about doing this process.

My urologist wanted to take a biopsy of my prostate since my PSA
scores have ben rising slightly and didn't go down significantly
after a week of anti-inflammatories and 1/2 hr warm baths. I had it
done today.

I walked into the Dr's office as Obama was giving his inaugural
speech. Very impressive and inspiring. The receptionist gave me some
forms to fill out and then hte nurse who'd be working with me came by
and told me I didn't have to fill out those forms. (I had already
filled them out a few weeks ago anyway.) She was friendly and caring
whereas the office staff was disorganized and lacking in basic human
interaction skills, as usual.

They then told me I'd used up my referrals. They called my Dr and
straightened that out so I appreciated that. My mistake and an easy
one in this world of bureaucratic HMOs.

They decided to give me an IV with antibiotics which they said would
take 1/2 an hour so they were glad I was there early. I told them
that I was scheduled to be there at 12:30 but I hadn't been told I
was going to have an IV so I hadn't gotten there intentionally early.
I then waited for a long time before they started in. (I wasn't
wearing a watch so I don't know how long it was.) Apparently the Dr
had an emergency so that pushed me back some.

They did the IV. It went well and the nurse was professional and
caring. Then I went into another room for the biopsy. That went well
enough. When the samples were removed it felt like a staple gun was
being set off, but without the staples, thank you. Nothing to worry
about. I was shivering due to nervousness and the cold room. The
nurse who'd seen me in the beginning was kind throughout which was
nice.

When it was done, the Dr said my sonogram looked fine. I have a cyst
on my ejaculatory duct and "stones" in the prostate but neither is
anything to be concerned about. Since I am not planning to have kids
it the cyst may actually be a blessing, a form of birth control!

I'll call the Dr on Monday. I probably won't report the results here but finding out the results will be more of a concern than the test itself.

And so far, so good. I've had no after-effects other than a little
discomfort and feeling under the weather due to the antibiotics for a
little while this afternoon but a nap seems to have cleared that up.
(One more antibiotic pill to take tomorrow.)

I'd go out and celebrate but I should take it easy for at least a day.