Outdoor gig for Crescendo Amelia Saturday in Nocatee and the weather was perfect.

So more videos found at my brother Rick's house. This one was sent to my parents back in 1996 and features Reed and Asiya. In the summer of 1993 Asiya and I went to Watertown for a month. Layla had to work her flight attendant job and Reed was just a glimmer in our eyes. Herb and family came for a week or so and brought his camera. So here are almost 3 families and Mom and Dad plus some good video of the property. AND what's interesting, for me at least, is that as I upload this, I'm almost exactly the same age as Dad is in the video.

So one of the things that I found at Rick's house was some video that I'd had made years ago. My father's sister Margaret (That's her in the thumb nail) had a film movie camera and would bring it with her when she came out from Cleveland to South Dakota where we lived. There are two files. Family1 is mostly from the 1950s with me and younger brother Joe taking up most of the reels. Family members-- there are notes on both videos pointing out who people are (As much as I knew) and where the videos were shot. Family2 is more from the 1960's and features brothers Herb, Rick and Mark much more plus the Clark relatives. My aunt had died from lupus by this time and the camera went to my dad. Now, for you Guam baseball aficionados out there, there is video of the very first baseball game that RA Meyer ever pitched. A Teener (13-15) game from 1965. (I won of course.)

So it's been awhile since my last post, much of which was spent in Watertown SD with my brother. Got family pictures, etc. out to the other brothers and nephew and basically struggled through one of SD's colder Novembers. Ahhh the warmth of Florida.

Reed had a couple of successful gigs last weekend. Friday night was the regular dance gig at Kraft. Here's one of the songs. Saturday night was a wedding up on St Simon's Island. I went up to keep him company on the hour and a half trip up to the private party and then found a close sports bar to watch the World Series. The gig was in the village at Neptune Park and amazingly the locals got a pelican to fly in so all we tourists could get a good picture.

OK, So I was scheduled for my once a decade colonoscopy this morning. I did all the prep yesterday and last night. Didn't eat and showed up at the correct time. As the nurse was prepping me for the operation, I told her about my AFIB episode in Minneapolis. (See previous entry). So she hooked me up to a heart monitor, looked at the results, and, with results in hand, said she had to go talk to the doctor. When she came back she said they wanted me to see a cardiologist before I had my colonoscopy and that I was done for the day. Later I talked to the doctor and he said they'd rather not have my heart stop in the middle of looking up my ass (not his words). I agreed that probably wasn't productive, told him my date with the cardiologist was 6 days away and went back to my breakfast.

So Tuesday (9/17) started with my brother calling to tell me his wife had been killed in an auto accident. I decided to go to see if I could be of any help and just to make it so my brother's house wouldn't seem so empty. I got there Thursday night and it was even worse than that. Evidently, this 16 year old boy had escaped from a juvy facility in Minnesota, somehow gotten a car, driven to Watertown, SD where he decided to end his miserable life by driving a 100 miles an hour into Dawn. She died instantly but he was still hanging on at a hospital in Sioux Falls. The memorial went well with people talking about Dawn and how nice she was. Her family was better people than I as they asked God to forgive the boy and to help him get his life turned around. Asked to speak I wouldn't have been so gracious. The rest of the week there went OK as I agreed to come back in 2 or 3 weeks help clear some of the stuff from our parent's house and to get it off to the brothers. Wednesday I drove off to catch my plane in Minneapolis Thursday morning. Decided to visit an old friend so I quickly dined at a Subway then walked across the street to her catering business where we talked for about an hour. Went back to the Subway and found my car had been towed. Sure there were signs but I had eaten at the Subway. With Georgia's help I got my car out of hock for a little under $300. She said she would talk to some people but I doubt there's much she can do. As punishment for my stupidity, I decided to sleep in the car but I hadn't brought a jacket and it got pretty chilly so let's just go to the airport and hang out there. A good plan I thought but carrying my bag up an escalator I got a funny feeling in my chest. Now this had happened before and I had asked my son to listen to my heart. He's said the heartbeat didn't seem to be regular but it had only lasted a short time so no biggee. I sat down. Half hour later still the same. Laid down. 15 minutes later, the same. I thought it might be time to get some help so I saw some TSA guys and they directed me to a policeman, whom I couldn't find. I did find a valet office, (where I started to get light-headed) who found the policeman, who called the fire department, who sent two ladies and an ambulance who hooked me up to various things and decided to take me to the hospital. Afib, they said, was quite common and not to worry but my brain was sending out orders for 150 beats per minute and my heart was only doing sometimes 60 and sometimes 80 per. It was a slow night at Fairview Southdale so I had the place pretty much to myself. My gang eventually decided to sedate me with 60 ml of Propofol (the drug that killed Michael Jackson) and then zap me back to normal with a variation of those paddles you see in the movies. Now that Propofol is magic stuff and about 2 seconds after I felt it hit my arm I was waking up and everything was done. Only had to zap me once and I was good as new or as good as new as I can be at 69. A couple hours of hanging out and telling them to bill Medicare and AARP and a $30 dollar taxi ride back to the airport, I was sitting there waiting for my Frontier flight to Orlando. Now Frontier is a good name for that airline as if they'd turn half of those seats around you'd have all all the fun and comfort of Wells Fargo stage coach but with 25 times the people at around 50 times the speed. but I digress.----------------------------------------------------------Things went fine when I got back to Orlando on my way to Jacksonville as I got my car out of storage and visited with a friend from Guam. A couple of hours later, however, an accident 12 miles out of Daytona Beach slowed thing to a crawl. Now I hadn't slept much at the hospital so it probably shouldn't have been any surprise when I was rudely jolted awake by the back bumper of the car in front of me. No damage and we parted friends as I'd rammed him at about 2mph but I kept my distance and chewed my sunflower seeds after that. Quarter hour later we passed the accident site and saw a car that had been rear ended at a slightly higher rate than 2. An hour and a half and only a couple of close calls latter I was back in Jacksonville and ready for bed.

Great gig last night as CABB sound great and there was a big crowd to enjoy it. Here's Reed singing My Way which the band just added to their repertoire. The irony of him being just 24 and singing this song did not escape him.

So once again it's been awhile since my last post. In the meantime it was "road trip" time as I got restless. From Jax the route took me to Destin FL, Austin, Albuquerque. Ft Collins, Rapid City SD, Watertown SD, Sioux Falls, Kansas City MO, St Louis, Chicago, Hendersonville NC and back to Jacksonville. Saw friends, relatives, and had the occasional date. Here's a pic of Dave and Cathy Jarman. HS friends

Been awhile since my last post. My apologies to anyone who was offended by my Trump pic now being even more appropriate than ever. Reed sent me all his pics from the Alaska cruise with his mother. Here are a couple. Of course we've had a few gigs with Crescendo Amelia. Put 4 of the songs on YouTube. Here's Reed dueting (Is that a word?) with Mara. Reed and Jade are both doing well in their new jobs as bartenders at a place called The Trailer Park. "Good God how the money rolls in"

And as far as my health, I'm still struggling. Immediately after the operation I seemed to be getting better but I think I disturbed the neck fusion and some of the old symptoms came back. MRI says the fusion is still good and the pains are irregular so I guess we'll just see how it goes for a while.

Reed's home and I'll post some of his pics later, but in the mean time this one actually made me lol.

Reed is with his mother taking cruise to Alaska. Took a while to get him going as his initial flight was cancelled. He finally got there however, connected with his mother and sent a selfie from the Space Needle.

Post op meeting with my surgeon went fine. X-rays say things are healing well. Was hoping my neuropathy would get better quickly but that's going to take a while if at all. Crescendo Amelia played Saturday night at the Riverside Church. Sound wasn't great but everybody had a good time.

So I'm recovering from my operation. What I thought of as the pains that were causing the irritation to my hand are gone. The shots of nerve pain that the Docs warned me about lasted 10 days and were not fun but are gone now also. I do feel that my hand is slowly getting better, the key word being slowly. I hope it doesn't take the 3 years it took me to get to this point. Update: Oh and forgot to say that my Oncologist says that my thyroid cancer seems to be well under control after my big dose of radioactive iodine a few weeks ago.

Crescendo Amelia played last night up on the island and sounded great but not that many people came. Rumor was that Amelia Island had a bunch of other things going on. I managed to get the first three songs recorded.

Not much going on. Band had their first of a few dance gigs at a church over on Riverside Saturday night. Smaller venue but it went well. Here's the poster advertising the two dance venues.

Reed ----- I’m so happy to finally be able to announce the official launch of URBAN MADE SOUNDS. What started as an idea in a coffee shop has now become a legitimate, game-changing production company. Our mission is to put the power of creativity back into the hands of all producers with world class loops and musician services. We strive to inspire the next #1 hit. Whether or not you produce music, I wanna encourage you to explore our website and maybe even pass the word along to someone who may be in that creative rut. We will also be featuring weekly blog posts and podcast episodes with tips and stories from all around the entertainment industry so stay tuned and join our email list!! MANY THANKS TO YOU FOR AT LEAST READING THIS FAR. Urban Made Sounds Urbanmadesounds.com

I've been seeing the Docs at Mayo Clinic to see if they could do what all the other docs couldn't: Figure out what's wrong with my hands and arms. Since my strength was down about 80% in my right hand I was quickly referred to a diagnostic team of Drs. Hammack and Pickleman. They pretty quickly came up with the diagnosis of a compressed nerve in my neck and the need to fuse C7 and T1. Dr Pickleman operated on me Thursday.

DESCRIPTION OF PROCEDURE The patient was brought to the operating room and placed under general endotracheal anesthesia. He was positioned supine on the operating room table. All pressure points were padded, and he was secured. The neck was then prepped and draped in the usual sterile fashion. Following confirmatory pause, a right transverse incision was made just above the clavicle. The platysma was divided and dissection was carried down between the tracheoesophageal complex and the carotid sheath into the prevertebral space. Dissection was difficult due to prior surgery and radiation to the area. This should include a difficulty level in addition to the usual procedure. Once prevertebral space was opened, intraoperative fluoroscopy confirmed our levels. Longus colli muscles were elevated and retracted to expose the C7-T1 disk space. Operating microscope was then brought into the field, and the remainder of the case was done using microsurgical techniques with the operating microscope. We began by performing a thorough diskectomy at C7-T1 using a combination of curettes and disk punches. A high-speed bur was then used to remove the posterior osteophytes at the level, as well as perform an uncinectomy on the right, thereby decompressing the right C8 nerve root. Satisfied with the decompression, the endplates were prepared and trial spacers were introduced. A 5 x 7 VG2 allograft spacer was then gently tapped into the interspace. Caspar pins, which were previously placed for distraction, were removed. A 16-mm Skyline plate was then positioned at the C7-T1 interspace. Pilot holes were drilled and 16-mm constrained screws were placed bilaterally at C7 and T1, and the locking mechanism was advanced. Intraoperative fluoroscopy confirmed good positioning of the implant. A 10-French round Jackson-Pratt drain was exited through a separate stab incision, and the wound was closed in anatomic layers.

Good gig last Saturday night. Here's Reed with Save The Last Dance For Me.

Been awhile since my last post. I was waiting for this week as daughter Asiya was supposed to come by as she was on a mid-winter vacation coming down from Fargo with her boyfriend. She evidently got tied up touring and wasn't able to get to Jacksonville. She promised "Next time". Only real news is me as the docs found some more thyroid cancer but hopefully cured it up with a big dose of radioactive iodine. My other health problem, the neuropathy in my hands and arms, is now under the scrutiny of the local Mayo Clinic. We'll see if they can come up with anything. They are serious.

Didn't get to the Crescendo Amelia gig at the Alhambra Dinner Theater this New Years Eve. Reed said it went well and Everybody had a good time. Thursday Reed and Jade took off for Savannah, GA for a little R&R. Here's a couple pictures they gave me.