Pigeons were out in abundance at San Francisco’s Union Square on Thanksgiving weekend. Herb Caen called them feathered rodents. That’s the thing I miss most in the San Francisco Chronicle, Caen’s column. With his tidbits, political jibes, and assorted oddities, he made every reader feel like a city insider. Caen was known to favor three-dot journalism. I have to say the three dot business is a handy way for putting random thoughts on paper . . .

Random thought #1 . . . Other things I miss are the holiday windows on Union Square. It used to be worth a trip into the city just to see them. There were magical animated wonderlands. There’d be kittens and puppies either vying for attention or hiding from view. The merchants didn’t even try this year. Their windows were filled with merchandise: evening gowns, jewelry, perfumes. There was nothing to evoke the season’s magic for the children. Nothing to delight the child in all of us. It left me feeling sad.

Sodden thought . . . Next Monday, Pearl Harbor Day, I start my chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer. I assume the one word is comprised of two: chemicals and therapy. The night before the first session, I’m required to take five steroid pills so the body doesn’t swell like a balloon. For five consecutive days afterward, there will be shots to keep up the white blood cell count. It’s obvious that chemotherapy is toxic to the system . . . Doesn’t sound very therapeutic to me.

I’m sure whoever first said, “The cure is worse than the disease,” had cancer treatment in mind. It’s all very brutal for the body and distressing to the soul. I can’t help but think that, if more men got breast cancer, a cure would be closer at hand. At least they’d find a way to deliver treatments that wouldn’t cause the recipients to lose their hair. Talk about adding insult to injury.

Radiation treatment follows chemotherapy for me. Only two weeks ago, Jeanne Rizzo, president and CEO of the Breast Cancer Fund, mentioned at a public forum that a less risky method is needed to screen for breast cancer because x-ray radiation is carcinogenic. Why, then, is the body bombarded with radiation in an attempt to keep the cancer from recurring? I don’t get it . . .

There is plenty I’m not “getting” today. That’s what makes this a three-dot day . . .