Thursday Evening

Thursday, November 16, 2006

So we’ve come to the close of another day and ANY day that is a day away from the hospital is a GRAND day! At least that’s what I think, anyway.

I went with CC to go get the kids from school and then to the medical center to get some labs drawn for my potassium count. That’s another thing we just have to accept until we get the Cardy, which is trips to the lab every 2 days to keep track of my levels. The Cardy will hopefully prove to be a gas saver as well as peace of mind benefit.

While we were out I got hungry, having skipped lunch, and asked if we might stop somewhere to pick up something to eat on our way home, so we went by McDonalds and I found out about 15 minutes later that I had made an error in judgment as to cuisine…I felt pretty sick. We had a couple more places to go then we came back home and I got back on the couch and laid still for the better part of an hour and my system seemed to forgive my idiocy. Lesson learned.
I got up when it was time for dinner and decided to try mobility without the cane and did well, so…maybe no more regular cane use…? We’ll see.

I also got my first shower in several days and that felt great, to say the least.

I’ve been working on my mood, which has been less than fair due to impromptu pity parties and things similar, so I’m trying to maintain a good musical base. Currently is “Stevie Ray Vaughn Live at Austin City Limits”. He’s the epitome of “the other side of the fence” from the boys of G3, which I was listening to just before dinner tonight. Stevie just mesmerizes me in no time at all. He’s got a wealth of chops that I would love to have, more-so than my desire to play like one of the G3 boys. I’m in awe of them and LOVE to listen to them but don’t have the drive to try to learn how to fly like they do on the fret board. John Petrucci from Dream Theater is on their “Live from Tokyo” video and just watching his right hand blows me away; the discipline it takes to move so fast on one string and maintain rhythm at that speed is just beyond me. Also in that concert you have Steve Vai with Tony MacAlpine on rhythm and keys and the seriously incredible bass playing of Billy Sheehan. The ending jam for that show was Hendrix’ “Foxy Lady”, ZZ Top’s La Grange and Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water”. As if their sets weren’t incredible enough, they close their show with 3 tunes which stand wonderfully on their own and each player solos in each tune. Billy Sheehan sings “La Grange”; very cool. If you dig guitar, you MUST check one or more of these shows out. I know of three videos of G3; each have Steve Vai and Joe Satriani and the third guitarist is different for each show/concert. 2001 Tokyo has John Petrucci, 2003 Denver has Yngwie Malmsteen and 1996 Minnesota has Eric Johnson (with Satriani’s bassist being the amazing and inspiring Stu Hamm). According to their website, G3, they've toured 6 years so far and are currently in Australia…Hey Neil, DON’T MISS THIS if you can possible help, bro. They've had several guitarists with Satriani, mostly Vai and others but the list of players is a vurtual "who's who" of axe men. The show with Yngwie is very good but Yngwie seems as arrogant as I remember him to be, but the boy has some lethal chops, no doubt.
Wow, I digressed…but then, I guess I can, huh? :-o)
I’ve also been looking at some MPEG clips from Live Aid 1985 (Dire Straights w/Sting, Led Zeppelin reunion) and some other live Zeppelin clips.

We have been checking into the possibility of being seen at San Francisco Medical thanks to my family having taken the initiative and made some calls and we found out tonight that I have to be seen by another Kaiser MD and get the same diagnosis before they will refer me to another medical center other than a Kaiser facility. So we will begin that process as soon as we can. It looks like we will go to Kaiser of Walnut Creek where our Neurologist normally refers his patients for second opinions. Once that’s done we can hopefully receive our referral.

I don’t know what God has in store for me at this point and that uncertainty causes friction within me and un-ease, but I guess I just have to learn to shut up and listen. As most of you know, I don’t shut up well… *sigh*.

So the specific praise for the day appears to be that I can move without the consistent need of the cane and that we know what our next step has to be with Kaiser to move forward. Let’s see what Friday holds…
Peace all
w