I finally think the healing process is complete. Yea, applause,... thank you, thank you.

After spending the last week and a half trying to figure out why it seemed like I was going to feel like crap for the rest of my life, I decided to make sure that I had completely sanitized or replaced anything which my mouth comes into contact with. This may sound simple, but I had tried this earlier and had forgotten a couple of items. I didn't replace my toothbrush top, nor did I remember that my sip-n-puff (the thing I use to activate my environmental control unit while I am in bed) needed to be bleached both inside and out. I had already had someone replace the tubing and bleach the inside of the sip-n-puff, but for some reason forgotten about the portion of the thing where I grab it with my teeth. Oh yeah, I also forgot about the ventilator tubing and my nebulizer which will work together to provide me with those wonderful breathing treatments. Only 12 hours after making sure everything was completely sanitized or replaced, I began to feel like a completely new person, albeit with a terribly worn body.

Yesterday afternoon I was feeling so well that I decided I didn't want to waste the entire day after my wireless microphone went out of sync with its base unit and my backup mic power supply became disconnected, thus leaving me sitting in front of my computer and unable to dictate to it, so I decided I would go out to get a quick bite to eat and treat myself to a movie. Not wanting to take the fact that both of my microphones had failed as a harbinger that evil machinations were out for me, I could not avoid the next signal. Following my delectable dinner, my brother went to pay the bill with my credit card and much to my chagrin there was no wallet in my pouch. To make matters worse, my brother didn't have a penny on him. I was thankfully able to send them across the street with his own ATM card to get me some much-needed cash so I could get out of the restaurant without having to give up something like a kidney. Knowing that my night was doomed, I went to the movie theater, which also happen to be right next to the restaurant, with an enormous amount of skepticism. Well, the theater was ice cold and I had forgotten to make sure that my Afghan was packed in my van. Therefore, I just turned around and immediately exited as quickly as I entered.

In thinking that not all was lost, especially since I could watch Sanjaya get booted off American Idol live, I happily decided to call it an end to my evening. Now... knowing that I had my mindset on this young man's demise, you can possibly imagine the shock when I saw that he wasn't even in the bottom three. What the hell is America thinking? Isn't that the same question I asked myself after the 2004 election? I think so. Thinking it was highly unlikely that some rich executive of Indian descent was using his/her millions of outsourced individuals in India to vote for Sanjaya, I decided that maybe I am just getting too old and am really out of touch with the youth of this country. It is also possible that I becoming a more kindly verision of Simon.

BTW, did anyone hear that the little girl that was crying was a set up. She had a ticket for the new show "Are you smarter than a fifth grader" as well as the rehearsal for American Idol. When the producers saw her crying during the reversal, they could not help but put her in the front row right next to Simon for the big show. Now I know why I avoided the show for the first four years and am now just shaking my head in wonderment. The only reason I decided to tune in last year was so I would know what everyone was talking about. Then they got me hooked line and sinker. Maybe I need to rethink that. Oh well!

See you in a few.

Billy