Belated birthday wishes to all the people I failed to note during my literary constipation ...Bill, Caitlin, Gisele, Teresa, Sister Mary Paul, Patrik, Deborah, Krunch, Tyneil, Rhonda, Wendy, and Denise.

The first record I ever bought with my own money was Alice Cooper's "Killer" in 1971 at a record store in Towson, Maryland. When I told him (Alice) this, on a flight I was working, he said, "I bet your mother loved that!" When I told him that I liked it so much I went right out and bought his first album "Pretties For You" (released in 1969) he said, "You, and five other people." Well, five people is a start and look where he ended up. Okay, not where he ended up NOW (he's doing TV commercials here in Germany for a chain of media appliance stores ...really), but where he ended up 35 years ago ...at the top. I don't have such high aspirations, but I dedicate this post to Alice Cooper, and the legions of fans (3) who encouraged me to blog again. Rising like a "Phoenix" (Grand Funk Railroad 1972) from the ashes (slush) of the last 51 days, it's time to "Rock On" (David Essex 1973).

It was 5 degrees Celsius here in Wiesbaden last weekend (for Fahrenheit, the general rule is to double that and add 30)...it's supposed to be 17 on Thursday. I knew spring was on its way two weeks ago when the first flocks of geese started heading north. You hear them before you see them, this honking cacophony of sound that builds like a circus rolling into town. That sound (in both spring and fall) always sends me rushing outside with the same enthusiasm I had as a kid for the Good Humor truck. Wiesbaden is built on mineral hot springs, hence the name. The geese use the thermals above the city as a sort of avian truck stop, resting without flapping, soaring in massive swirling columns. It's eerie, it's the only time they stop honking. After a while they start to break away in small groups, those groups merging with others to fan out and eventually form the biggest V's I've ever seen. I think that's how the Flying V guitar got its name. If not, it should have. It's a beautiful thing to see (the geese I mean, but the guitar as well), and I look forward to it every year.

The back is much better thanks to my stay in the clinic and the physical therapy I've been in three times a week since coming home. The nerve pain in the leg is practically gone, and the inflammation and pain in the hip only seem to crop up when I walk too much. I had an appointment last week in Virginia with an orthopedic surgeon who told me the bulging disc will not get any better (he should have seen me before the clinic!) or worse (he should have seen me before the pain and shift that sent me to the clinic!). He said I can live with/manage whatever discomfort I might have through pain management, or I can have a 30 minute out-patient operation called a discectomy. Apparently it's a pretty simple procedure that involves shaving off the goo that's leaked out of the disc and is pressing on the nerve. I'm still mulling it over.