How do you feel today?

That's good to hear/read.

Hug-o-tron™ cranked up to 11

I am truly sorry.  This is all so sad. x

I received a WhatsApp message this morning from my son to say that my "Uncle Gerard had died, whoever he is".

Hearing of his passing was sad, but it was particularly sad that my son didn't know who his great-uncle was. In fact the last time I had seen Gerard was at my father's funeral (his brother) over 20 years ago when my son was a baby.

For years I have been intending to visit my uncle to find out more of the paternal side of my family as I know virtually nothing. All I know is that my father was one of 3 brothers born in a small town not far from where I live now. Both of their parents died when the boys were very young. They were adopted some time in the 50's by who I always called Nanny Alice & her husband (who died before I was born). All 3 brothers were kept together when adopted. My Nanny Alice already had 3 boys of her own & all 6 boys were raised together. From what I've been told, my father had the same surname as his adoptive parents (it still is one of the most popular names in that town so this is conceivable).

Gerard was my father's half-brother & the last one to die. He was always the entertainer & was great fun to be with & I guess that many of the facts about my father will be lost with his passing.

One of my father's 'true' brothers was Mick. He was married to Val. Val was very eccentric & very rich. She had a walking stick & smoked a pipe, & when I was a kid I was always slightly scared of her. Val always maintained that she had gotten her injury and her money, because she had been a passenger in the car accident that killed Paul McCartney in 1967. Almost definitely not true but I do remember seeing photos of her with The Beatles.

I feel good.

Finished the recording of the first song last week. Very happy with the result. Can’t wait to mixing it.

Congratulations, the birth is imminent! Sounds very satisfying.

Getting used to a certain baseline of pain in the past few weeks. Saw my orthopedist last Monday because of increasing hip pain and had some x-rays taken. Initial findings are bilateral osteoarthritis, some sort of deformity of the femoral heads (the "balls" of the hip joints) bilaterally, and possible lumbar nerve root impingement, all of which explains a lot. 

Will have an MRI this coming Friday. I've learned that if I want to sleep well, I have to take 600 mg of ibuprofen, but I don't want to do that every night. Been avoiding walking much because it makes things worse. Spending lots of time laying down, but trying not to lose too much muscle/core strength by doing Pilates, which can be done lying down!

Hiatus from dance right now until I have a treatment plan, I think. It's not the worst in the world but I feel old and am afraid of having to give up dance...