I am leaving for up north tomorrow.

I just wanted to take a minute,
before leaving,
to thank everyone
who has helped me
during this past year.

That includes a lot of people.

And what a strange and wonderful
bunch of persons it is.

I could not make it
without the help of those of you
who have been so kind to me
during these past years and decades.

I am blessed to have a team
of which I am very proud
in every way imaginable
and I hope that I will be able,
someday,
to repay some of the numerous kindnesses
which have kept me going.

I have not told
that I have been gravely ill
several times during the past months
as the full extent of the damage to my body
has begun to manifest itself more fully.

It has slowed me down greatly.

And has caused me to be even more indebted
than I already was
to those who have helped
to nurse me back
to some modicum of health.

During this past month
I got to turn all the way to the left and right,
while driving,
for the first time since August.

I got to reach into the back seat
from the front
without the pain being so excruciating
as to make this impossible.

And I have finally been able, barely,
to bend my rib cage
at the place
where the most numerous rib fractures took place,
right over my spleen.

I recently had to have huge amounts of antibiotics
as my entire body had sunken into a state of sepsis
caused by all of the toxic byproducts
of numerous fractures and tears
in my left chest wall and shoulder, etc.
(mostly all around the place
where you hold your hand,
over your "heart",
when you say
the Pledge of Alllegiance,
ironically).

Needless to say,
this has slowed me down considerably.

I hope that I am on the mend.

I have several very attenttive
(and very angry at me)
physicians
who are doing a wonderful job
of seeing to it
that I just may live
to see another day.

Thanks to you guys especially.

They all know how noncompliant I am
and how little I like doctors,
and the likes
(funny thing about retired paramedics).

So, I must thank them even more
than I normally, otherwise, would.

Oh, and I almost forgot,
I can barely bend my right great toe,
which has been stuck 
and unable to bend
since hitting the ground
and breaking in several pieces.

You have no idea how elated
I am at this,
unless you have been through the same
or similar.

My right little finger
is still multiply fractured
(shatterred).

I at first played keyboards
with only the greatest of pain,
but over time
have gotten it to be much more functional
than it has otherwise been.

Such has been the case
with every composition
which I have written since August.

My poor brain has been left mostly blank
as the very violent and forceful concussive effects
have left me,
most of the time,
in a rather dazed and confused
state of mind.

It feels,
all of the time,
how you feel
right after you get hit hard in the head
and are dazed
and not knowing
what has just happened to you.

Such that I often get out of the car
and just stand there
not knowing where I am
or what I am doing there.

After several minutes,
I figure it out,
I think.

Each month I get some more of my brain
back functioning normally.

Oh, the things we so take for granted.

Also, thanks to all
who have helped
to complete the TAHITI 2012 album,
especially while I have been
in such a compromised state.

I love all you
more than I can begin to tell
or express
or communicate.

I will just have to leave it at that.

I hope that I can continue
to carry out my part in all of this.

With profound thanks
and gratitude
to all of you.

And especial thanks
to those one or two or three of you
who have provided the inspiration
for many of the songs.

While you have forced me
through the entire panoply
of human emotions
and emotionalism,
repeatedly,
over and over again,
I have been able to turn it to good use,
I hope.

I owe much to you
and will not forget it
so long as I live
(barring the unforeseen,
but of course).

Here's to "looking deeply within your eyes".


w/the most profound love and appreciation imaginable.

vw

Wednesday
12-26-12
8:10 p.m.
Ventura, California, USA