Things are pretty good right now. Hugh's friends, John Stallone and Mike Jorgensen are here. (see below for pictures) John & Hugh knew each other when they were in their early teens, both in gangs in Brooklyn. Hugh's gang was the "Halsey Bops." John still sometimes calls Hugh by his nickname from that time, "Whitey." I once asked Hugh why he was called Whitey. He said, "I guess because that's what I wrote on my jacket." Hugh and John and Mike all wound up in Synanon together.
The cavalry arrived Tuesday. Mike is a master carpenter (we went to Kauai for Habitat for Humanity with him and his wife-at-that-time). He's also a bighearted sweetheart of a guy (I've NEVER heard him say anything mean about anyone), and he and Hugh are working on fixing the front porch roof and the front foyer roof. Both roofs were rotted and leaking, and Hugh had torn them up and had not been inspired to continue (rain, expense, exhaustion). They are working their asses off and Hugh is smiling. John and Mike are minding the house, cooking and cleaning down there in Hugh's domain & cleaning up the millions of dishes for the canaries (who live so WELL).
After a good period (Hugh smoking dope every morning and actually having an appetite and eating), he's now having increasingly bad side effects from the radiation, and he's having a worse and worse time eating and drinking. Sheri gave us a lot of advice and encouragement about food, weight loss percentages, the feeding tube. Hugh's daughter gave us good advice about what might be edible or drinkable. Hugh is thinking he doesn't want to even TRY to eat any more it's such a drag.
The two wise men (wise guys) have been taking Hugh to his radiation treatments, so I was able to go out to Santa Monica, spend too much money on clothes (great clothes!) and walk for almost five hours on the boardwalk. Five hours. And it was a beautiful day.
I shoulda brought my bike. I've only fallen twice, and the bike is so close to the ground I haven't been hurt. A scabby knee is all. The first fall was because I wasn't sure of how to stop. I'm getting better at that. The second fall was a result of the front tire going into a narrow rut which grabbed it and so I toppled. My equilibrium needs work. And my self-confidence isn't great. Back to my Wii?
If Hugh feels well enough, we'll walk to Gelson's tonight and buy some appealing food. After that he wants to show me a movie he loved, "Idiocracy."
Hugh said he must have done something right to have such good friends in his life. I remember when Louie Delgado was dying in Tucson of liver disease. He was bedbound in a sanitarium and out of his head most of the time. Hugh went to Tucson, slept in his truck, and he looked after Louie for several weeks. What goes around comes around as we used to say.
Mike & Hugh
John
Mike on the roof
Venice boardwalk
