Motel 6, Sweetwater Texas (near Abilene) 1/21/1, 10:40AM Ah... life on the road. Motel 6 is kind of like New Jersey. Gets a bad rap. They're simple rooms, but mostly they're clean and cheap. Jersey's a beautiful place if you get off of the interstates. Dave's travel tip for the day... bring your own Do Not Disturb sign. Motel 6 does not provide them, so I carry my own. The check-out time is noon, though. Luxurious for musicians and other nocturnal creatures. Two nights ago I stayed in a Best Western in Pecos, TX. Then I was on my way to Alamogordo NM. Now I'm on my way back home, which will take three days of driving. That was a fun show, and the last on this little month long tour that brought me across from Jacksonville FL. In that Best Western in Pecos I woke up and jumped around the room for a while. Just jumped around, grinning, in there all by myself. I had to keep my word. Maybe I should back up. When I was little we used to get a Christmas letter each year from an elderly couple Dad knew. It consisted of nothing but graphic descriptions of the year's ailments and maladies, and their treatments. It was always entertaining, but perhaps not quite in the way they intended. At the risk of 'being that guy', though, I'm going to try to tell this story, because it's been a big part of what's happened in my life lately, and has moved me. So, to take a stab at telling this succinctly... On Tuesday morning almost two weeks ago I woke up near Austin at the home of my good friends Ann, Eddie and Ellen. I was feeling sort of queasy and headache-y, and decided I had picked up some sort of flu bug. I'm generally a pretty healthy person, so I try to buck up and deal with it when that kind of thing occasionally rolls along. The symptoms got progressively stranger, though, starting with blind spots, then shakes, then my arms going numb. That was when I started to get nervous. After that my transmission must have gone out, because my digestive system threw itself in reverse, and Ellen came home from high school to find me pretty sick. I had managed to call Kristin, who lives in Austin and whom I spent two and a half years dating, so I was on the phone. Kristin had offered to come out to look after me if I needed her to, and had given me her phone number at work. That was when things got really weird. I wrote the number down correctly, I believe, but I couldn't read it back to her. I could see it, but couldn't remember what the numbers were called. I tried six times, staring right at it, and kept saying it wrong. Kristin and I both got really scared, and Ellen called Ann to come home from work and take me to the emergency room. By the time we got there, I couldn't tell the doctor what seven and three makes, and I had to ask my long-time friend Ann what her name was on the way. I couldn't think of it, and it was driving me nuts. Ann assured the doctors that I was clean and sober, and helped answer questions, since my ability to speak coherently was rapidly leaving. I don't think my speech was particularly slurred, but the wrong words were coming out. Just the wrong word entirely. Like I might want to say 'chair' and would say 'wedding' instead. I was watching my own mind recede, and had no idea if it would return. The good news is that if this makes any sense at all, it did. Kristin showed up soon at the hospital, as did Eddie, and they were great support. After a CT scan and a spinal tap (I feel so much closer to the band now), the doctor determined that what I had had was the mother of all migraines. No kidding. Apparently a severe migraine can influence blood flow in the brain to the point where stroke-like symptoms occur. All through this adventure my arms kept going numb for about twenty minutes at a time. They don't know whether it will ever happen again or not. Guess I'll find out. In the meantime, though, I've noticed some things. Top of the list, I've noticed that I can communicate, and I'm grateful for that. And I can feel things with my hands. It hasn't escaped me that those were the two main things that were taken from me for a few hours, my words and my hands. Then they were returned. Better use them well. I'm not sure what that means, using them well, but I'm paying close attention and trying to look for some leading there. I had a headache for a little over a week after the hospital visit, and one afternoon talking to Ellen I said "When I stop hurting I'm going to jump around the room just because I can!" It's funny how when you can't do something like that, it makes you want to. So the day before yesterday in the Pecos Best Western, I jumped around the room for a while, just because I could. And it was fun. Makes me wonder what other fun things I'm missing because I'm taking them for granted. I'm feeling just fine now, physically and mentally, and have been wide-eyed with wonder driving through a snowy West Texas. I stopped and took a picture of icicles hanging on cactus. Then on to Alamogordo, where I drove down out of the mountains looking at the White Sands in the middle of the valley. There's much more to tell you. I've had great shows lately and seen some great old friends, etc. Got to hang out with Beth Wood and the Kennedys in Florida recently, while we did a show together in Pensacola. The movie is close to sold out from it's first run (of only 60 copies). Just got word that an award I won for the S.S. Bathtub, my kids' record, carries $500 with it (which will take a chunk out of the ER bill!). That's pretty cool. The main news, though, is that I'm well, and I'm happy, and I have a clearer awareness of how many good things and good people fill my life. It's funny that through that whole ordeal, thinking that my mind might be leaving and my life might be complete, I lfelt pretty content. No kidding. Now I have some bonus days. Like an extra life on a video game. Don't know how long I get to play, but as John Gorka says "If all my luck ran out tomorrow, I'd have to say that I had had my share." Thanks, as always, for being interested, and for listening. I promise the next NFR won't have any medical details... :) Be well.   David