What a Day

Such sad news this morning - Edward M. Kennedy was just diagnosed with the same thing that my father had, a glioma on the left parietal lobe; otherwise known as a brain tumor and glioblastoma. In another coincidence, my dad was the same age as Senator Kennedy when he was diagnosed. My dad lived for about 15 months after the diagnosis after bravely undergoing brain surgery for which he a. was awake and b. had to have holes drilled into his skull so they could bolt a restraining device in place to hold his head still while they cut into his skull. After that, there was no sign of the tumor but he elected to have gamma knife radiation anyway, as an extra measure. And it was the gamma knife which ultimately killed him - blasted away the white cells in his blood and he died of A-plastic Anemia. But after his surgery, he did have almost a full year of reasonable quality life. In June, it will be 11 years since my dad passed away and it feels like yesterday that we were all going through this surreal experience together. I sure as hell would never wish this disease on anyone.

My mood was lightened a bit, though, when the mail came. I received a package from Dan Ward with CDs of the Wavy Gravy benefit and have been playing the Nelson segments over and over... some really good stuff there, especially "Where I Come From", one of the new Hunter/Nelson tunes (although I prefer it by the New Riders). And I was also blessed with a vinyl copy of Lawrence Ferlinghetti reading Tyrannus Nix, which I played several times. I love the way Mr. Ferlinghetti chastises Richard Nixon.