All is Quiet on Valentine's Day

So my birthright, anxiety, reared its ugly head, or throat the past week.  I'm generally blessed with good health, but when I get some new symptom, I'm immediately at the Mayoclinic.com web page, figuring out that I have some dread disease.

A few years ago my headaches were surely a tumor, until MRI studies showed otherwise -- burping was pancreatic cancer, which I defeated with an endoscopy that showed it was a touch of h. pylori.  Higher back pain last year was surely kidney cancer, until a CT scan done by my friend Kenny showed it was nothing -- and not only that, but my heart vessels were surprisingly clear for a fat older guy.

And don't even let me get started about prostate cancer...

So I read that Michael Douglass had throat cancer which started off as a lingering sore throat, and closer to home, a beloved, now retired judge had it, too.  Both men survived, so I figured I would, too, but not without a nightmare's worth of awful treatment and suffering.  Well, thankfully, Dr. Mary and her able canine assistant Circe disagreed with my sense of doom, and said I just had a lingering sinusitis, causing some post nasal drip which irritated my throat.  A three day course of antibiotics ought to get rid of it...allowing my thoughts to return to those of love, on Valentine's Day...

My Mom, gone nearly 4 years, was romantic -- she always remembered Valentine's Day, and made sure, as a boy, that I had my cards in order when I marched off to East Broadway Elementary School.  So in later years, I always sent her flowers -- addressed to my first Valentine.  After all, if a boy isn't loved and adored by his mother, he's set on a clear course for "Mommy Issues" which will haunt him and the women in his life forever and ever...

Probably about 15 years ago, Paul and I had settled a nice case in late January, and were feeling a bit jaunty, and so drove out to Wifey's flower company in Doral, on a mission of amor...We bought an entire box of Ecuadorian roses -- I think there were 12 dozen, and set about bringing them to the office, to be sorted and delivered.  We were wearing our suits, and driving in my Jaguar, and we came upon a damsel in distress stuck with an overheated car.  We stopped to help, and it turned out it was a local news reporter, trying to make it to her Doral TV station in time for the noon news.  She climbed into the back and we drove her there.  She was probably in her mid 40s, and found it hilarious that two well dressed, handsome men in a Jaguar had rescued her.  She asked what we did for a living, and Paul responded that this was it -- we drove around dressed like this in search of ladies needing assistance.  We dropped her at the station, and as she was leaving, I said "One moment more, ma'am."  I went into the trunk and pulled out a dozen roses for her -- telling her that now she was free to go.

She was overwhelmed.  Paul gave her a card and she ended up calling him for a date, but he refused.  Back then, his dating market was markedly younger...so he politely begged off.  I was bothered by this, figuring that the firm might get some nice publicity...but the romance of the affair was what counted.

Later that day, we set up an impromptu flower arranging center in our dining area, and then had Paul's man Lou come over, and deliver the flowers all over South Florida.  Paul's Mom Lillian and my Mom Sunny were the first recipients, and they loved it!  Ah, romance for the older ladies...

Today I'm listening to Sinatra, and looking forward to an evening out with Wifey.  Our friend Loni is coming over late afternoon, and we will drive her to the Gables, where we'll meet her husband Mike for an early Valentine's dinner.  We then have tickets to a chamber music concert at the Gables History Museum...Loni and Mike attended last year, and said it is lovely.  Loni's Mom is coming along, too, as her husband tends to stay in their apartment these days.

So I plan to celebrate love, which, after all, is the foundation of life.  And hopefully Wifey will still be my Valentine...