My mother seems to be well. She is now a week back from Cleveland where her boyfriend of the past 6 years was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. That's incurable and a fairly quick and painful way to go I understand. This man was a Godsend to my mom after my dad had died in 2002. Mom and Lee (not his actual name) hooked up in 2004. His wife has died 5 years previously in a terrible bicycle/car accident. Lee and mom healed one another over time and Lee was there for her when my brother was diagnosed with terminal kidney cancer in 2005. However, having suffered through my father's death and then through my brother's death took quite a toll on mom and Lee recognized this. He implored mom to return to Sacramento so she would not have to watch another important man to her disintegrate before her eyes. She came home a week ago. I had recalled my sister from China in anticipation of mom's early return and I had one of my former wives move in to assist mom with her daily activities. Mom is settling into her new role as "queen" where we do for her instead of her always doing for us.

Well, Joe has been in Sacramento with his new love for the past 5 days, but is scheduled to leave to London this afternoon. By the time most of you read this blog he'll be back in Jolly 'Ol facing the music that he must. His stay in Sacramento was bumpy, as I predicted, but very few people that come to visit me here actually listen to what I tell them and then act upon that information. I find myself saying "why don't they just do as I outline?" but invariably people who do not take their rehab 100% seriously tend to fall off their workout schedules, become lazy in their application of the 4 P's, and soon end up on the wrong end of a bottle or needle or both. For Joe I noticed a sharp decline in his interest in rehab as soon as he met this particular woman (I warned both Joe and this woman repeatedly against one another), and his focus became opaque and distorted. This particular woman thinks of herself as a "healer" because she has a massage certificate and teaches yoga. One must watch out for charlatans in this life. For instance, this woman knew I had a bad shoulder (I fell hard on it this past January). Although I was reluctant, I allowed her to "massage" my shoulder. It was painful, but I endured it. After a few minutes she proclaimed that she could cure me through her healing touch and that I didn't need to see a physician. Well, the pain continued and so I kept my doctor's appointment and xrays showed that I had, apparently, broken my shoulder cap way back in January. A large spur had developed along the capped ridge and all sorts of stuff is going on in and around the joint. The jagged spur is cutting into my ligaments, tendons and muscles. There was no way in heaven her "healing hands" were going to fix this. An MRI was ordered and subsequently I have just learned that I have a severed tendon and tangling muscles and a torn rotator cuff. I will be seeing an orthopedic surgeon within the next few days and must look forward, I'm afraid to surgery soon.

So, here is this woman swooning all over Joe, telling him gawd-knows-what and "healing" him. Well, that all backfired. They argued. I believe he drank, but I am unable to confirm this. Now there are hard feelings and Joe has slipped way off his rehab schedule as it was with me. The upshot of this is that it will make his return to England much more hazardous and his trials there more difficult to handle. I pray he has the fortitude to withstand the onslaught of negative influences which will descend upon him like a plague. Also, I have no idea what these two concocted about his return to America, but any thought of his return to Sacramento must come without my investment. Since Joe did not participate as I wished him to in his developing alternate vocational directions for himself, I can only conclude that he intends to, somehow, resume his song writing career. Fortunately that should keep him in Europe until he can receive his next royalty check. Then his plans were to move to NYC. Hopefully he'll not resort to his old ways of dealing with his life while in London awaiting criminal proceedings and instead will withstand the trials he must endure and move forward from there with a plan for himself.

I know I said Joe would be that last case I take on for awhile, but I have received word of a rather desperate situation that I cannot ignore or turn away. A mid twenty something young lady who has been rehabbed at least a half dozen times, was doing fairly well I understand (she's an opiate addict and a methhead)-she was attending school toward a nursing certificate-when she went to visit an old boyfriend and began shooting speedballs! How one jumps from nursing school to speedballs so rapidly over a boy I will never understand. I do know she has not read my book so perhaps I can get her healthy, detoxed, and implant some important ideas in her head before getting her back to school. I expect to hear from this young lady's mother sometime today or tomorrow and will make arrangements for her stay here.

So, I have an old friend coming for a visit this weekend. My middle daughter graduated university this past weekend. My youngest daughter prepares for her middle school Commencement and The Ever Important Commencement Dance. The love of my life is moving 600 miles away in a month for at least a year, and I have shoulder surgery to undergo! Whew...what can happen next?

Oh, and I received a call from Old Blues Guy. He is happily undergoing his rhab in Southern Cali still and constantly referring to PREHAB for guidance. He says that PREHAB has absolutely prepared him for rehab and because of that he is benefiting tremendously while he watches others around him flounder. It enlivens me to think that any of my humble words could help a poor soul so. I am forever in awe of my mysterious ability to conjure the right words at the right time. I am happy to assist OBG and all these other souls in such anguish. I only wish I could do more.

Obviously, a rest will have to wait...