Finally...the Rock has come back to...

Merry Christmas from the "Tree Wise Guys, uh...Men"!

I damn near forgot how to operate this thing. None-the-less, having fortified myself with copious amounts of Budwiser ( King me, baby), Johnnie Black and other, uh, substances, I seem to have figgered the damn thing out again.

Been a Hell of a time, lemme tell ya. Work aside, it's been a little rough. First of all a blog-bud, Mad Mikey has been fighting for his life. For real. Now the guy's a Rightie, but he's a Rightie I've come to love and respect. I'm not going to go into it here, you can get all the details at his blog, Mad Mikey's. If you're doing well financially, you might want to help him out with a few sheckels, his family is really sufferring. Smash has set up a fund for him and his family to offset the enormous costs of his medical bills. Details can be found at Mikey's blog. This is a great opportunity for those of us on the Left to show those on the Right the compassion we claim to have for those in need. Ante up.


The Mad One


While this pales in comparison to Mikey's situation it was still hard to take. A week before Christmas I had to put our oldest cat down. She had brain cancer and about five years ago I spent a small fortune on her treatment. It worked...for a while. Anyway, daMagster was heartbroken. I got drunk. Cait, I know you can relate to this. To those of you who aren't animal lovers and think I'm a big wuss, go fuck yourselves.


Cheecho


Christmas itself was great! Spent it with mebrudder scroff, his lovely lady Ruthalla, deOleman and, ofcourse, daMagster. I got daMagster Sirius so she could listen to Howard and she got me a new sword, (which I proceeded to chop various things on the premises with, much to her shock and dismay...Hey! It's a fucking sword, what did you think I was gonna do with it?).



Merry Christmas From daMagster! A new Sword!


About two weeks after Christmas, deOleman ended up in the hospital. Won't go into it, but he gave us all a good scare. Three days after he came home, he had to go back. Well, he's home again, pissing vinegar and breathing fire so all is well on the homefront.

My birthday was January 12th. I spent it at the funeral of one of my best friends, George Hugle.


George and his beloved bride, Inez.


Like my mom and daMagster's mom, lung cancer killed him. George was one of the finest men I have ever known. A superb craftsman, George helped initiate me into International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Motion Picture Studio Mechanics, Local 52, New York City. He was what we call one of my "Rabbis". He taught me as much about life as he did about scenery. I was able to see him the Saturday he died at his home in New Jersey. He looked bad, considering, but not near death. We talked, joked. He was lucid and fairly active. He told me he was ready. I asked him to save me a seat in Valhalla and he said, "No problem. Take your time, okay?". That was George. Cajones as big as...

George was a soldier in Viet Nam and when it was his turn, he took it with style and grace. I only hope that I can be half the man he was. I am working with his son Lou now and Friday we had lunch together at a great little Italian restaurant in Brooklyn, and reminicesed until we were both crying like little girls. I'm going to do a post on George so watch for it. I loved that man and I love his son. I look forward to the day I see him again.

Well, that pretty much sums up most of the shit. I'm working on a big picture now but I can't tell you anything about it. Hey, I'm having fun and making money. It doesn't get any better than that. daMagster is great. In fact, I gotta go cook dinner. She's upstairs prettyfying herself for me and I have two Porterhouse steaks ready for the grill, so, guess I'll talk to ya's later, 'kay?

d.