The untraditional Xmas

Hello to all
I recently (as of friday) had a very untraditonal Xmas. Why you may ask ? Well my father who turned 80 this past July and despite having a slight stroke in 2002 and taking heart medication is fairly healthy for his age.
Last Tuesday he had extreme case of lower stomach pain. So much so he had to be taken to the emergency room at the local hospital(which is about four blocks) by an ambulance.
The first time I saw him in the emergency room he was curled up on the gurney clutching his stomach and complaing and cursing. Now my father doesn't curse all the time (he does some) and is a fairly easy going guy but he was giving the nurses and doctors a hard time. After a CT scan and Xray they discovered that his lower intestines or bowels were obstructed.
The solution then was to pump his stomach which involves sticking a tube down your nose and throat into the stomach.
At first he wouldn't have it no he said just take me home and get me something to eat I'll be ok and he also believed that it would cause cancer(a larynscopy was done to his uncle and his cancer was already in the later stages.)He was being stubborn and obstinate about it.
The doctor, my mother, and I assured him that this wouldn't be if he'd just cooperate finally he said Ok. I didn't see this procedure but from the sound it wasn't pleasant.
They pumped his stomach for about six hours and got alot and I mean ALOT of fluid out of it. The doctor after studying the scans and x rays suggested that not only was the lower intestine blocked it was "twisted" like a hose. They'd never seen it before in man of this age and he'd never had any surgery in his stomach.They'd have to send him to Memorial Hospital in Springfield,Il for potential surgery.
About ten pm after being in the emergency room for nine hours he was transported to Memorial Hospital. The surgeons and staff looked at him more closely and suggested that they would continue to pump his stomach until morning and maybe only have to do a laproscopy to check and see if would clear itself up.
My mother and I left the hospital thinking that it would be better in the morning we got two blocks from the hospital and the cell phone rang.
The surgeon decided to do the laproscopy that night and possibly operate on his lower intestines. So back to the hospital we went and they prepared him for surgery.
The surgeons were extremely nice and I got the impression they were really concerened about this obstruction and that it couldn't wait until morning.
There was scar tissue wrapping around his small intestine and causing him all that pain.They made an incision below his belly button took out the intesting cut out the "kink" and sewed it back together and put it back.We waited in the surgery waiting room for about three hours and around four am the surgeon came in and told us my father would be OK !
If the surgeons didn't do this he'd either gotten gange green or perrinitis or could have died. I'm very glad that they were vigilant about this problem and treated it as life threating.
He spent five days in the hospital recuperating and I knew he was feeling well when he was joking around with the nursing staff and doctors.
So I'm very thankful to the surgeons at Memorial Hospital in Springfield Il. They are very skilled and nice people and would highly recommend them any day.
Although, it was an untraditional Xmas it would ensure traditional and uneventful ones to come.
A very big THANK YOU and Congratulations to the surgeons and staff at Memorial Hospitial in Springfield, Illinois.

The Return of the Mac and other thoughts.

Hello to all
well after nearly two weeks of hand wringing and kvetching I've repaired my Mac. Now this repair just required a new hard drive which one can pick up for about $70 at Best Buy (which is what I did). However, when your unemployed but getting a smaller weekly paycheck $70 seems like alot of money. Thanks to my friend Matt who helped me with half that amount my G5 Macintosh is running today. Matt is a friend who I met when I worked at Borders and I've known him now for over ten years.
We've been good friends for most of the ten years but there were times when we didn't agree or something was said by either of us (probably me) that caused us to disagree. It was realized in time that the friendship should continue on and it did.
When I met him he seemed like a nice enough guy at the time and I thought that we'd work together and eventually grow apart. But that didn't happen despite the physical distance between us (He's live in Alaska, Florida, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, Wyoming) we've gotten close with every phone call, email and visit.
Like alot of people in this world he's a child of divorce and the circumstances in the divorce I won't go into at length but let's just say his parents parting wasn't a pleasant one. Despite this he has a pleasant personality and is probably one of the nicest and most honest hard working person you'd ever want to meet.
So before I get to long winded here lets all stop for a moment and remember those friends who mean alot to you and let them know how much they are appreciated.

John Hughes, michael Jackson, The Beatles

Well one of the idols of my youth died the other day John Hughes. He was known for his direction of The Breakfast Club, Ferris Buellers Day Off, Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles.Recently, he directed those Home Alone and Beethoven movies which were Ok but not as good as his previous work.

Ot seems like everyday someone who I identified with in the past is well...past. I realize that as you get older people who are
famous that you identified with do get older and die however Gerogre Burns and Bob Hope lived to be 100 and Harry Morgan is 94 years old ( Col Potter on MASH) as far as I know he's in decent health and hopefully will also live to be 100.

However, There are the surprises I can recall when people didn't think for a minute that people such as John Candy, Chris Farley, and yes even Michael Jackson would die or even die suddenly. . I guess we shouldexpect people to pass away "suddenly" but it is always difficult to grasp this until it happens.

I guess one just has to keep in mind that everyday is fleeting and that there may not be too many more tomorrows.

Another note on the passing of time the Beatles album Abbey Road turned 40 today and it was at the forefront of music at its time. I think it was one of the first albums that used a synth instead of an organ or piano. I've heard that it was so delicate that the other members of the Beatles would have to wait for Paul to set it up and play the parts for the album. This caused alot of tension so maybe we should be blaming it and not Yoko?
Anyway, the Abbey Road album is worth listening too from beginning to end on this date forty years later.
Until next week ?
GETOUTOFMYHEAD!

I actually went to something on a friday night

Hello everyone
I went to the Sonic Youth concert on friday night which is unusual because I've always been a "homebody". The concert was free (I did have to pay for the metrolink ride there) It was part of the Budweiser Live on The Levee series and played on stage under the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. I'm not a big fan of Sonic Youth although I do know some of their songs and I think their biggest influence/ audience is pot smokers. Anyway, I decided to go and listen to them. I was glad to see several age groups there from the "old" people like myself to youngsters who probably never owned a 45 single (record). T Before the show started a guy approached the microphone and announced that there was a lost child needed to be found but as soon as he announced it she was found by the soundboard. He said to her that "she's just helping them get the sound for the band up to perfection." With the child found the show was going to start at 7:30 the band appeared at 7:45 but they are from the NYC area so being fashionable late is normal for them

. Thurston Moore founder and sometimes lead singer announced that "we are the sonic youth" after that they began playing. They recently released a new Cd an I believe they played alot of their new material from it. The band isn't the type to stop and say for our next song we will play etc they just play from one song into another.

Kim Gordon sang a song and I did see some people leave with a disgusted look on their face guess they were expecting a band like The Fray or maybe David Gray ? Overall, the crowd remained interested in the songs. I was kind of concerned about those standing in front of the stage they just did that stood there. Back in the day (I sound old) that area would have been moshing, crowd surfing or even pogoing I would have liked to at least see pogoing.

During a break Moore asked if it was always this beautiful here (highs in the 80's low humidity) the crowd laughed because it usually isn't this pleasant in the middle of July. He said they(band) were thinking of relocating and wondered if there was any room in the arch for rent.

I wondered to myself about the ages of the members of the band. I know they started around 1980 with Moore and Gordon at least in their twenties and by now approaching or at their fifties. I checked up on their ages on Wikipedia. Thurston Moore is going to turn 51 next saturday and Kim Gordon who I guessed to be fifty is actually fifty six almost sixty years old. She didn't seem to be slowing down with her skills on the guitar or stage persona.

They played a solid show despite it being free and the fans not being hardcore Sonic Youth followers.

The one thing that I didn't like is at the end of their encore set their p.a. system was shut off and a song by Flyleaf started playing and the fireworks show started. I think those that planned this should have given them some extra time to finish and take a bow before blasting lame pop and fireworks.

Until next time.

GETOUTOFMYHEAD

Here is an added bonus some video I shot on my phone.

When will the tribute end ?

When will the tribute(s) end to the deceased king of pop. I realize that he was a "icon" in the music industry and still had alot of fans despite releasing only one album in the past ten years or so(more recent work were compilations) .
However, I think there should be a time limit to how long the media can pay tribute too him. In my opinion two weeks is about long enough although the fascination with the King of Rock Elvis Presley passing away has yet to go away and he's been dead for 30 years. The media is worried about how Michael's kids are going to grow up without their father. They should avoid MJ's dad because from what MJ said wasn't a pleasant influence on their father.
Lisa Marie grew up without her father and she doesn't seem all that affected by it unless you count her marrying MJ and Nicholas Cage and releasing a few horrible albums. I'm certain that the children that MJ had will grow up to be semi-well adjusted despite their lineage. One of them might actually have a talent for music or something related to music? The best thing they could do is either get away from the music business altogether or become a producer or a label owner.

HELLO Its good to be back good to be back.

Hi everyone
I am back on the "nets' and I'm going to get back into blogging about what is going on in music today and even yesterday. Because not remembering the past is a sad thing.
THANKS
GMACD.