October 28th, 1998
2:10 p.m.: Just got back from lunch and have heard from Dr. David's office that they've had a lot of emergencies and that I will not be scheduled for next week. But they feel pretty confident that I'll be hearing from them next Wednesday when they prepare the following week's schedule. I am partly relieved that I can put it off for another week and have some fun in the meantime. But I am also disappointed, because I do want to get on with it. I've already canceled all plans and music gigs as of November 1st until the end of the year, and for every week that I get postponed, it means another week of time lost for the recovery process. Such a dilemma. "Oh shut up and get on with it." (I tell myself). - Well I intend to! This weekend I am taking off work from Thursday till Monday, and I have four music gigs in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Thursday, Friday and two on Saturday night. My last hurrah, so to speak, for a while. Hmm, maybe I can pick up a one nighter for the following weekend as well??
4:00pm: Just heard from my good friend in, Niagara-on-the-Lake Steve Oprici, who is going to Montreal for the week. He just wanted to check in on me and see how I was doing and see if I heard any news.
Also heard from my ("Drumming Fool") pal Penner MacKay, who is also from Niagara-on-the-Lake. He wanted to know what the latest was. He's having his annual Halloween bonfire this Saturday night and suggested we could drop by after my gigs. My old musical buddy Conrad Kipping called as well. I will be working with him tomorrow night at the gig.
I have to say that so far I've had great support (spiritual and moral) from family, friends and surprisingly, business acquaintances. In situations like this you see who your friends really are. It is easy to tell those that really mean it and actually do care about you. I am quite blown away by it all. And the most amazing thing is that it is my new found friends from Niagara-On-The-Lake are really there for me. We've only been in Niagara-On-The-Lake (most weekends...) for about four years now. These people are really our true life friends. We are truly lucky to know them. 'Nuff said.
November 3rd, 1998:
This weekend I played a lot of music in Niagara-on-the-Lake starting with a barn dance on Thursday night, the first gig under the new name, "The Bum Tickers". It was drummer Perry Quinn's gig and we had Conrad Kipping on mandolin, fiddle and guitar and Eric Mahar on guitar. It was a wonderful session with a small intimate audience. We jammed on many new songs and had some inspirational mid-song improvisational moments that were very special to both the players and the listeners. A few people that have heard me around town many times said that this was the best thing they'd ever heard. It was really good.
"THE BUM TICKERS" - Photo taken at the barn dance that night by our host, Kevan O'Connor. From left to right, Conrad, Perry, me & Eric.
Friday and Saturday nights I played with the Platypus Rex band at the Angel Inn. The place was packed as usual and the Halloween costumes were excellent. It was also a lot of fun as it was Perry's first time taking over from Peter Griffin on drums. He did a fine job and all the old songs had a new twist to them with Perry's own style.
After the Angel gig ended on Saturday night, keyboardist Herb Nelson and I quickly headed over to the Royal George Theater where the Shaw Festival actors and company people were celebrating their closing week by putting on an original variety show. It was open to the public (word of mouth only to those in the arts community) and there were many very funny skits, music, lots of men in drag (well it was Halloween, for god's sake!) and several musical acts. Herb and I accompanied Doug Hughes on John Hiatt's "Have a Little Faith In Me" with a full band and three actresses singing amazing back up.
It was really great. What a way to go out. My last gigs before my surgery hiatus were definitely memorable. Which is a good thing, since I now don't have anything booked for four months until next March 1999.
Yesterday, Monday November 3rd, back in Toronto, I stopped in at my office for about an hour. Then I went downtown to Dr. Sternberg's office at Womens' College and dropped off a thank you note to his secretary Linda, who was so nice to me and helped move my angiogram date forward. I then went to Toronto General and dropped in on Susan, Dr. David's assistant/secretary. She was very sweet and actually apologetic about my getting bumped from the surgery list last week. I really don't expect any special treatment and I do appreciate her and Dr. David's efforts to get me to the top of the list A.S.A.P. I really believe they are trying. But there are others who are unfortunately in worse shape than me that need emergency care. This is how our system works. And its probably a good thing too.
Nevertheless, my wife Dory, is still very worried that something could happen to me in the meantime. I keep telling her that I've made it through the last two years so I should be able to make through another week or two. Anyway hope to hear word tomorrow (Wed) about a date.
Part 7 - The Support Network
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