Jesus, gang.
Yesterday was something else.
But, so far, this morning is stunning and peaceful and I’m gonna go with that feeling.
First off, I spent about 3 hours yesterday, attempting to re-publish the print edition of Twilight of the Immortal — my novel about Rudolph Valentino and various gays & lesbians in 1920s Hollywood.
It seems that soon after I re-published the Kindle edition a couple weeks ago, the print edition disappeared from the Internet. Yay.
So I republished it back at Amazon, and it took forever, however — I’m waiting to hear back if I got it right, or if it still needs tweaking. Obviously, I’m hoping it will show up as available for sale again over the weekend. We shall see.
And a totally unexpected cool thing — I got a notice in the mail from Progressive Insurance, inviting me to come back to them for my car insurance at a better rate….
When I checked into it, it was indeed a better rate! $25 less than what I pay my current provider, so I switched back to Progressive. (Every additional $25 helps me feed the cats spend an upcoming weekend in NYC!)
The downside of course is that, for the first 45 days of the new policy, I have to drive with one of those snapshot thingies inside the car, which means that when I hit Muskingum County on my journeys home, I can’t go 92 mph!!
I have to go the actual speed limit…
For 45 fucking days!
But I’m thinking that if it saves me $25 a month, I’ll survive. (Plus — next month is when I start paying $50 less on my mortgage!! Yay!)
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Another cool thing!
Yesterday, I decided it was really Spring now. So I moved all my stuff from the downstairs shower to the upstairs shower.
Since the upstairs bathroom was added to the house late in life — after the indoor plumbing was installed in the 1950s — it doesn’t have any heating ducts. So I use the downstairs shower in Fall & Winter. (That bathroom was added onto the house in 1997 and has tons of heat!)
But symbolically, to my brain, it felt really great to move everything back upstairs — especially since I had that plumbing stuff done recently. New pipes up there, new fixtures in the shower. Here comes Summer!
We had such a fucked up Winter. I am so glad to let it go!
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And early this morning, Goats of Anarchy posted a brand new photo of Maverick on Instagram! Taken yesterday afternoon. He’s the goat that I sponsor at GOA — a rescue farm for abused and neglected farm animals in New Jersey:
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But the horrible thing that happened yesterday…
Omg, gang, I am so angry and so disgusted.
I heard from my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man’s private nurse yesterday that his eldest daughter– the same one who was just here for a week, visiting him from Seattle for the first time in 18 months and exhausting me — is planning to place her dad in a local nursing home.
Since she rarely visits him and almost never speaks to him on the phone, she has no clue that this is, literally, his worst nightmare — being removed from his home. And removed from Granville, a town that he considers to be “paradise.” (It’s a Mid-Century Modern home, on a quiet cul-de-sac, literally surrounded by towering trees and deer and birds galore and squirrels and chipmunks and blue skies and life…)
It’s the home he shared with the love of his life (his second wife) and the house is filled with her Spirit. And all their photos and memories — they traveled a lot. (His stepkids inherit the house once he leaves it; the house belonged to his second wife.)
His private nurse and I both agreed that he likely would not even survive the move. But if he did survive it physically, his mind would not survive it. It would destroy him.
And just to dump him there, in a nursing home that I know for certain has a terrible reputation for being understaffed, lousy food, patients lie in bed unattended, getting horrible bed sores. And NONE of his kids — who live out West and in Hawaii — would ever come visit him again. The nurse and I both know this.
We are both so angry and upset. The nurse is hoping to dissuade the daughter from doing this. She’s going to call me tomorrow with an update. But we are both just distraught.
I finally had to call my supervisor at the Agency and talk myself down from my outrage, to try to keep my head and heart from exploding. She was very helpful and talked with me for about 20 minutes, although she couldn’t believe it either. He does not belong in a nursing home, let alone in a lousy nursing home. He has short-term memory loss but his health is perfect. (“Why doesn’t she just increase the caregiving hours and sign him up with Hospice? Same insurance covers that and he can stay at home??”)
I have decided to just pray and stay positive that the nurse can persuade the daughter to change her mind. And it will not help my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man to see me distraught. He’ll want to know why and I certainly can’t tell him…
And since there’s not a fucking thing I can do about that daughter, I have to just make the very best of whatever time we have left. Because considering all things, he is almost 96 and he is not going to live forever.
I just want to somehow stay joyful and peaceful and cheerful and happy around him. And keep him focused on the incredible life he’s already had. It has been such a joy knowing him.
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Well, onto other things.
Here’s this.
The Stones allegedly bonding in Laurel Canyon, before the start of their 1969 tour!
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And here’s this!
John Lee Hooker, B B King, and Willie Dixon — I guess, also bonding!
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Another photo from April 5th:
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Oh, here’s this! From the Rolling Stones Brasil channel on Instagram!
The new Stones album is apparently titled “Rough and Twisted”! Still expected to drop tomorrow, April 11th:
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More reasons to love Tom Petty!! As if I needed more reasons!!
His doodles that appear to focus on the word “FUCK”!! (Now a t-shirt, for $36! Buy it HERE!! I wear a size Large!!)
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And here’s this!
Although I think this article would have been fairer to Ian to use a photo of Johnny in his elderly Ebenezer get-up!! Anyway…
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And here’s this!
I don’t know from which show or who took the photo!
Nick Cave looking splendid, and I guess bonding with the audience!!
And Cave Things is still having their Spring Sale. 25% off all orders! Use code: SPRING25
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And I guess this is a good place to close this post because I just got an update from Amazon that the print edition of Twilight of the Immortal has been published and will be listed for sale again within 5 days! Yay!!!!!
Have a good Friday, wherever you are in the world, gang.
Thanks for visiting.
I love you guys. See ya!
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Let’s close with this.
This is the very upbeat hymn that closes out my play, “Tell My Bones”, about the life of the late Kentucky painter, Helen LaFrance.
I’ll dedicate it now to my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man.
“Walking in Jerusalem”. This version is by Diamond Rio. Enjoy, gang.











