http://www.aspendailynews.com/
We got up this morning, fixin Bustelo coffee and steamed milk.
I open the paper and there it is, even here in St. Pete. Dr Gonzo shot himself. And we had to tell my wife's son, who has long upheld the Doctor as an epiphany of the real American Dream.....and now I wonder what throes of sadness he will have to wallow through.
Angry, sure I am. I am a survivor on a mission. I can tell you the depths of despair are only doorways to even more wondrous perceptions.
Yes I believe in euthanasia, but not youth in Asia, and I know the Doctor was less than non-plussed about the fear and loathing that he was feeling about these times. So who can say? I am left wounded, because, like others of his countercultural ilk who died, from drugs to assassins to despair, he will be missed for the old folk-rocker he should have become.
If he was in pain, suffering, I could see it. I work closely with hospice a lot. Just a couple of weeks ago I spent a touching afternoon and on into the evening with a gentleman who was sitting by his wife, holding her hand, halfway to heaven already, treasuring the last moments of a 30 year tour as singers of gospel.
She had cancer and brain mets and had a stroke. He brought her to us knowing that she would die, unable to extend her suffering with feeding tubes, but allowing her to have intravenous nutrition.
I somehow assisted her off the IV, by letting the old man know that her blood glucose was climbing higher, needing increasingly more insulin to cover it, and she had started sweating and moaning with discomfort. So I stopped the Procalamine, started slow drip of plain saline, informed the doctor. We had turned her toward him. She was more comfortable also, with a bit of morphine. Last glance, he was stoically sitting there, into the dark, holding her hand, carressing her head.
I came as close to crying as I ever do in these situations, but I can tell you, with the Doctor, I feel regret. Real regret.
Dr Gonzo is gone
zo what ya gonna do?
I'm gonna make me a cup a cuban coffee
an paint th day Blue.

http://www.rkpuma.com/0hst.jpg