the cancer , the crippling effect of the surgery , the debilitation of the radiation , the insidious rapacity of the rose hips , always looking to take another , and another , inch of the yard , the stubbornness of bett to keep doing things that , he was sure , her physical therapist had told her to avoid , or , most of all , rage at himself that he hadnt made himself chop back the rose hips some saturday rather than going sailing .