A Very Important Day

Today is a very important day... in more ways than one, even though they all have one central point: my friend, Ray.

Those of you who know me (and considering that there's only 3 or 4 readers of this damn thing limits that number to 1 or 2) know how important my music is to my life. Hell, if it wasn't for my band and the guys in it, I'd be somewhere up in the hills of Idaho right now, talking to myself (okay, I do that now... ), drinking copious amounts of Bushmill's (okay, I do that now, but I'm working on it... really... ), and doing one hell of a lot of long distance shooting with my arsenal (okay, note to self: must do this more... sans whiskey and self-discussion.). Yeah, the band is that important... and yet, that's just a minor point of why Ray is so important.

I've been playing in bands with Ray for damn near 15 years now. To put it bluntly, he's the best damn drummer I ever played with: fluid, on time, creative... the list goes on and on. But that's not the main point...

The point is (now THERE's an original segue... ) that Ray's also been one of the best, if not THE best, friend I've ever had. I could go on and on about all the great times (and really shitty times) we've had, but then you'd get bored, I'd get maudlin, then I'd get Bushmill's and then I'd miss work tomorrow... not a good thing. Let's just say that Ray is THE MAN. Oh, I could tell you about the time a good friend in the military sent me 2 liters of good German beer and what happened after, or the time Ray took a header in the parking lot of a club we'd just played at, and what happened after, or the time Ray started calling himself "The Flagler" and why... and what happened after, but I digress...

The main reason today is a very important day is that my best bud Ray is going under the knife today for cancer. Yeah, Ray beat lymphoma (which took Joey Ramone and others from us), but some damn melanoma got under his skin and gave him a tumor (which we nicknamed "Lumpy"), which is being excised today. The operation ain't gonna be an easy one, and there's a chance Ray could get really fucked over by it (loss of arm movement, loss of facial gestures, etc... ), but what really matters is that Ray survives. I can't even begin to imagine my life without Ray Gilligan in it. I could hang with Ray not being able to play, but I can't hang without hearing Ray say "Hey Homocidal, what's going on?"

So here's what I'd like all four or five of you to do: pray for Ray. Pray that he comes through this well. Pray that my best friend gets to keep on living (and hopefully playing).

Cuz that's what I'm doing...