Hello to all of my loyal and faithful readers out there in the vast hinterlands and buried in the morass known as cyberspace.
I know that you have been asking yourselves ... “selves, where the f**k is Billi Pod ... why the f**k hasn’t he timely posted on his blog site?” WTF is going on?
Well, there has been a lot going on in my life since the last posting back on Friday and once you read through this way-too-long posting I think you will understand. Also, Billi Pod does have to say that if you were a FaceBook friend you would know what has been happening ... but, since most of you aren’t on FaceBook ... well ... so ... anyway ..
Let’s start this with a summary-style update, beginning on Friday, October 29th ...
Friday - as previously posted I met up with John Scott Reed at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Dumbo, Brooklyn, for the The Tiger Lillies and Justin Vivian Bond performance.
Scott just barely made it into his seat before the show began. Man, in the name of fair and unbiased reporting, Billi Pod must report that Justin Vivian Bond’s opening act was worse than awful. It was mind-blowingly bad and way too long. Scott and I exchanged looks, rolling our eyes ... what have we done?
When Bond finally finished and the stage was being set for The Tiger Lillies (also with Bond) to begin Scott and I agreed that we just couldn’t stomach any more so we fled the scene as fast as we could.
Scott found us a nice restaurant in the ‘hood and we had a great meal and catching-up time.
When I got back to PHC I finished packing, set the alarm for 5:30am for my 7:15am car service pickup, and crashed.
Saturday - the car service pickup was right as scheduled and we made excellent time out to LGA. I checked in at AirTran, cleared security and was at the gate in plenty of time to have some coffee and something sweet.
Wow - was able to get an exit row seat and that was great. The plane was a Boeing 717 and it was full. We left on time. This wasn’t a direct flight. We had a stop at Newport News, Virginia (where????), but didn’t have to change planes. (I had scheduled this rather than a direct flight in order to save over $200 roundtrip)
It was extremely turbulent on the flight and the Captain kept the seat belt light on for the entire time.
When we landed at Newport News, on time, I remember thinking ... “Why is there a stop here with a full-sized jet? Who would be going here?” Well, the answer is ... about 85% of the passengers left the plane. WOW, thought I ... that is really surprising ... now we will have plenty of leg room for the rest of the flight.
Wrong ... new passengers soon started streaming in and every seat was taken - it was actually oversold. Thankfully the weather had cleared up and the rest of the flight was uneventful. We arrived in Orlando only 15 minutes late.
Then, it ... gasp ... appeared that The Norris Travel Curse had been lurking, waiting to kick in upon my arrival ... what happened? Well, for whatever reason it took almost 30 minutes for the first bag to appear at the baggage carousel. Yes, I had checked my duffle, as I usually do because ... Billi Pod does not own a small carryon ... so everything I would need was in the duffle ... clothes, suit, meds ... everything.
The bags started appearing, again very slowly, about 4 items at a time. WTF!! It was taking forever. Then the carousel stopped ... WTF!! There was about 10 of us remaining ... and ... nothing happened ... OMFG!! And, of course, no employees were to be seen. After 20 minutes, I timed it, the carousel started up again and out came some more bags. Thankfully ... my duffle was the next to last bag. The whole process took an hour.
Not a good omen, thought I. Well, there was nothing I could do about it, so I found my car rental station, got my small compact car and headed out of the airport to find Bill III's aka The Bill new house.
Of course, as usual, I made a wrong turn leaving the airport, but no problem, it was easily corrected. And, I am happy to report that I had no problems finding his new house, which is actually in the same general area as his previous house.
I was at his pad in time to watch the final 3 quarters of the GATORS/BULLDOGS game. Man, what a major disappointment. Since so much time has passed I think it will serve little purpose to dwell on the puke-inducing season the Gators are having.
Man, it is soooooooo hard to find anything positive to say about what is happening. We are going to be lucky to finish the season at 6-6.
What about bringing back Ron Zook?
Anyway ... after the game it was time to head out for dinner. We had made plans to have dinner with two of Bill’s golfing buddies, Renzy (a retired fire chief and former next-door neighbor) and Kenny (a computer engineer). We picked them up and made our 7:30pm reservation at Outback. I love Outback, especially their Blooming Onions.
Dinner was great and it helped me get back into a better mood ... so thank you Renzy & Kenny.
Was very very tired when we got back to the house. I wanted to leave in the morning in plenty of time to allow me to swing by Gil and Linda’s place before the services, scheduled to begin at 2:00pm.
Sunday - I think it was around 7:00am when I got up. Thank God the weather was OK. Had some coffee, repacked, and was ready to head out around 9:00am.
Had no trouble finding my way from Bill’s pad to The Turnpike, which later turns into I-75. The traffic was OK and I didn’t swerve in front of any busses carrying day-tripping children or force any other vehicles off the road etc etc (at least that I know of).
Got to Gil & Linda’s around 11:00am. I am so happy to report that Linda was and is doing fine. Yes, as you loyal and faithful readers who know her know ... she is one tough lady and very emotionally stable. A few family members and friends were also there and we had a nice opportunity to visit and to remember our Gil.
About 1:00pm the family headed over to the location of the service, which was at the Baughman Center on Museum Road on the U of Florida campus.
It is a beautiful location and the weather was great. The small chapel seats about 90 people and it was full of friends and family members. I was the first of three who shared thoughts and remembrances about Gilbert. I ended mine by looking upward and saying ... “Thank You Gilbert for being my friend” ... and then while looking at Linda ... “Thank You Gilbert and Linda for letting me be your friend.”
Yes, it was a very emotional time. Per Gil’s request, via Linda, the service was a bit less than 30 minutes. When it was over everyone in attendance was invited back to the house for a bite and more opportunity to talk about Gil’s life and its impact on each one of us. In many ways I felt more emotionally touched by this than for the formal service itself.
I have to say that Gil's son, Bruce, was a steading force during the entire time, helping Linda with things and stuff and being a positive model for everyone.
I had previously planned to overnight in Gainesville with my friends Chuck and Ramona Chance, so we left Linda’s place around 4:00 and headed to The Chance Chalet north of Gainesville.
We had a great time catching up and talking about lots of things and stuff. Chuck cooked a turkey and made some awesome dressing. We had dinner outside in one of their gardens. It was really nice and it let me unwind, physically and emotionally.
My plans for the return trip to NYC was to get up in time to leave their place around 9:00am for the drive down to The Orlando Airport. I would turn in my rental car and have time to chill before my 2:00pm AirTran flight back to New York City, The Greatest City In The World.
I crashed earlier than usual. I was tired and drained.
Then ... the second phase began ...
Monday - around 2:00am my cellphone beeped. It woke me up. But I didn’t check it. I woke again around 5:30am to the sound of rain pouring down. I checked the cell ... and ... the 2:00am beep was a text message from Bill ... and ... Holy F**k ... it said that he had checked into the emergency room at Winter Park Hospital at 9:00pm with what he thought were symptoms that he was having a heart attack and that they would probably keep him there for another day or two. OMFG!!
I got up and immediately began packing. I knew I had to head down to Orlando. At this time it was pouring rain.
Chuck and Ramona got up and saw me off. It was 7:00am. I knew that there was no way I could leave on my afternoon flight, no way.
I have to say that the drive was extremely difficult because of the heavy rain and the number of huge semi’s that were on the Interstate. I really had to work at staying focused on just getting there rather than what had happened to Bill.
It was around 9:00am when I was in the Orlando area. Found a place to park and called my trusted Travel Agent, Blanche Bryant, and told her of the situation and asked her to book me on the same flight for Wednesday afternoon and to extend my rental car. Of course, I knew I would stay as long as Bill needed me ... I immediately found myself in the initial phases for “The Hovering Nun” modality.
It was still raining. Finally found the hospital and was in Bill’s room around 10:00am. Now, my loyal and faithful readers, I could probably write at least 50 pages about this experience but I won’t, other than to say it was one of the longest and slowest and most boring times of my life ... not joking. The clock virtually stopped moving.
After his admission they had done numerous heart related tests on Bill and, thank you God, the results indicate that his problems were not heart-related, he was not having a heart attack. Whew. This info came from a Cardio/whatever who had treated him before. He was also seen by two other doctors, one a Gastro/whatever and the other a Neuro/whatever and they confirmed that his chest problems were not heart-related.
The difficult part ... all of this took way way too long and we got entangled in a bit of a dispute over whether he could be released Monday night or had to spend the night. It was mostly a paperwork problem in getting the final discharge papers processed.
Finally he was officially released around 9:00pm. We picked up a pizza and were back at his house around 10:00pm. Both of us were emotionally and physically drained, and that is putting it mildly. We scarfed down the pizza and both crashed a bit later.
The bottom line is that the problems are believed to be related to nerve damage in his back as a result of his numerous back surgeries. What happens is that the tightness triggers a brain response that he is going into cardiac arrest, with all of the negative results ... this causes panic etc, as well it should.
Man, when I went to bed I was as tired and as emotionally drained as I have ever been. I am so glad I was here. Had I been in NYC and gotten the message I would have caught the first flight down, of that we were both absolutely certain.
Now ...
Tuesday - Bill, of course, took the day off from work. He feels OK. We both slept in.
Today has been a day of just chilling and talking about what happened. He has new meds and followup appointments. We have no problems with The Hovering Nun heading back North.
Tonight we are having dinner with grandson Chris Falletta aka Topher and his girlfriend Ashley. We will probably go back to Outback and that is more than fine with Billi Pod.
Tomorrow, Wednesday - Bill will go back to work and I will chill until my 2:00pm flight back to The City.
I had shows scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday but was able to give my tickets to some of my theater buddies, including Dian Crystal.
So, my loyal and faithful readers, with much more detail than you wanted, you are now basically up-to-date ... so ...
GO GATORS!!
Billi Pod
“Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.”
ALEX-69
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