I had just returned from a disastrous solo open mic set when cries from Joan sent us rushing to our nearest hospital. During her four-day stay, she was diagnosed as perhaps having experienced acute pancreatitis and/or the passage of a gall stone. Fun fact: Even after you have your gall bladder removed, stones can be produced.

It was the second time in two months that one of us had landed up at a hospital following an open mic.

During the course of that weekend, we missed out on a number of important events. One was a memorial service for my friend Anne Rhoads, who died of cancer on July 4. She shared a birthday with my friend Phil D’amore, who also died of cancer recently. I met Ann in 1967 and count myself as one of the reasons that she became a follower of the remaining members of the Doors, due to my idolatry of the late Jim Morrison. She was witty, beautiful, honest, a good mom and a good friend.

The second event was our son Ezra’s work as the lighting director/designer for AJR at two sold out shows at Madison Square Garden (formerly the home of one William Joel). Though the sound and the crowds might have been a bit much for our hearing aid-assisted selves, we wanted to go to support them. Alas, not this time.

The folks that attended Joan in the ER and the main........

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