Greetings from the Boat in brooklyn. Good day down in Armonk today.. I am down for a set of meetings.. ran into a whole bunch of friends in the building that made me feel very welcome. For as big as this place is, it sometimes feels nice and small..

After my meetings I drove down to Helen Hayes hospital to visit my friend Jim.. He’s been making slow but steady progress since his accident several months ago.. He is awake and talking, but it’s not easy to understand what he’s saying most of the time..    so it goes with traumatic brain injury.. it’s a long path.

I was very happy to see some friends there.. My old friend Lenny ..John who’ve  Ive met several times in PK and another friend of Jims, Brian who I’ve never met… We had some good hang out time with Jim .. as we pushed him around in the halls. Jim was able to interact a little. he recognized some song lyrics, answered a question or two about his kids… and get this..

Lenny and I hadn’t seen each other in many years.. I was trying to tell Lenny that Id run into someone he’d  known as a kid.. but hadn’t seen in 30 years..For the life of me I couldn’t remember who it was.. Lenny didn’t know eaither.. Then Jim came out of his world for a second, looked straight at me and said “Mark Merrill”  then went back to his planet.. and he was right. !. I don’t even know how he would know that, much less how he knew what we were talking about  .. There’s a lot going on in that head  of his

Right before we left a  really nice guy named Dan came in to say hi to Jim Dans wife is a few rooms down.. also in here for a tramatic brain injury.. its a tough place… tragedy and triumph every day..

I’m sitting here typing and two big fat rats keep coming up here a few feet from me to see if I have any food. they are SO brazen that you have to work to scare them off. I swear this palce is like the Colony.. If they only knew that I used to eat rats n the show  they might not be so bold.

ok.. It’s late and I have an early day/ more tomorrow.

nite all, nite sam

-me