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.