Not that I remember a whole hell of a lot of this, but the story goes that late last month while Whirl was away in Washington state, I decided to spend some time with my friends. First I spent Friday night with Princess FixIT and Farmboy up in Roger’s Park. We watched some TV and played some video games and had some really yummy pizza from a place I have missed since I lived up that way.

Saturday, I spent over in Wicker Park with my friend Mick. That was also quite fun until the moment came that required me to go home. On the way to the train station, I was struck violently by a bicyclist. I suffered several skull injuries. Police came within a few minutes and took me to the hospital. (I have no memory of any of this, and have sort of pieced the narrative together out of versions of the story from others.) Anyway, after about two hours, I was in surgery. They put a drain in my skull, doped me into a drug-induced coma, and stuffed feeding and breathing tubes down my nose and throat. (I’m not sure if it was in that order, or what, but I had both.)

I maintained the coma for over a week. After which time they removed the various breathing and feeding tubes, as well as the pressure drain from my skull. Conviently, my memory starts to return on these days. Or shortly thereafter. Family came out from Colorado. Whirl came back from Washington, as soon as she heard.

I have gotten a tremendous amount of love and support from everyone I know. And for that, I know I will have a lot to do to explain how I feel. For now, please allow me to say — very simply and very sincerely — “Thank you. All of you.” It has been a wonderful aide.

For those curious about the details, I suffered a subdural hematoma. Those happen most every week on ER, but I couldn’t really tell you much, other than it means a fairly serious brain injury. I was released from the hospital on February 11th, and began therapy (speech, vocational, physical and psychological) on February 18th. Everyone is saying that given the severity of my injury, my recovery has been quite remarkable, so far. That is encouraging good news. The bad news is, of course, the massive amount of incredible headaches I have discovered I am capable of feeling. Hopefully, we’ll get those under control, soon, with some sort of therapy, be it drugs or meditation or a change in my day-to-day behavior.

Anyway, I intend to update this site as best I can with news and information about the event. And once, again, thank you all, so very much. You have been wonderful.