I have really cut back a lot during the past two years. I went from 440 jobs a year to 250, which for me is a huge cutback. Steve, as you saw when you were here, I have a fairly large piece of land to take care of. I have 7 rock gardens, all of which need maintenance, 2.5 acres of lawn to cut every 5 to 8 days, plus that 33-foot Morgan sailboat that needs constant maintenance in order to sail. So, I will still have lots of things to keep me busy.

My biggest concern right now is my health issues, which are insurmountable. There is no cure for asbestosis - IT WILL KILL ME! I WILL slowly, but surely suffocate to death. My best hope is that a massive heart attack gets me first, but I doubt that I'll be that fortunate.

As Donny keeps saying "Live every day as if it were your last." Well, that last day is coming a lot faster than I was hoping for. Of course, things like that are real easy to say, but in reality, you cannot live that way. You still have to plan ahead for many, many things, including death.

I would love to continue performing at the level I currently enjoy, but from my medical background in Cardio-Pulmonary medicine I know that cannot happen for very long. Tonight, I did a happy hour at an assisted living facility in Towson, MD. I've been doing this job for about 8 years, the audience loves me, and lots of visitors come on the nights I perform. Everyone always want to know the date when I will return so they can mark it on their calendars. Tonight, while unloading the gear from the van, I began to feel a bit lightheaded. I carry a pulse-oximeter with me all the time and checked my oxygen saturation - it was down to 89. I sat down in van, turned on the AC, and did some special breathing techniques to increase the oxygen saturation. After about 5 minutes, I was able to continue to push the equipment into the building and set up. However, at this point, there are some songs I can no longer perform because of the structure of the song, songs where you must carry long notes. I no longer have the lung capacity for them. This is what I'm facing.

Overall, as I said in a previous post, it has been one Hell of a ride. I've done things in this life that many people on dream of doing. As Carol always says, our marriage has been anything but boring.

Next year, I will probably cut out a dozen more locations, and only do those within 20 minutes drive time of my home. However, that will still be at least 15 locations, which translates to 180 jobs a year. Come October 2015, I will make the decision of where to go after that.

Cheers,

Gary