$51,977.19

By way of an update, I'm recovering quite nicely from the Radio Frequency Ablation which was performed on me and my heart three weeks ago Monday. I tend to tire quickly but that's part of the bounce-back process. I'm regaining strength quickly and, most importantly, my heart is back in normal rhythm. The doctor told me (and I've mentioned this several times to my daughter who worries too much) that I have "a good strong heart." I was, in fact, back on the ice last week under the supervision of my doctor who appears to have no compunction whatsoever about shooting the puck at my head. He must think I'm okay. So, it's all good and I thank all of you again for the kind words and thoughts that meant so much to me. And for the troops, also.

It's a good thing my heart is "good" and "strong". The bill from the hospital just arrived in the mail a few minutes ago. Before I opened it, I was thinking a good over/under number on it was $50,000 and I just about nailed it. For the procedure and two nights in the hospital the total came to what we put in the title line of this post: $51,977.19

Wow and geez us. Here's an outstanding example of how one gets from zero to fitty-grand in 48 hours: I use a CPAP machine when I sleep at home so they had me wear one during the operation. I had it on for about six hours. That alone cost $1,400. They provided one for me to sleep with but I couldn't use it because it was way louder than the one I use at home and it kept me awake. Now, it's the bill for the thing that would be keeping me awake at night if we didn't have health insurance because that was another $1,100. Amazing. And I'm pretty sure the total I'm looking at here is only the hospital bill. It does not include the doctors fee.

As I said, good thing we've got insurance. The total bill was actually $51,983.19. There's a six dollar charge for "outpatient/guest lunch" which I think means Jeannie had something to eat while I was undergoing the procedure. We're on the hook for that.

Comeback Player of the Year
While recuperating, I remembered that I got a copy of a Tiger Woods video game for Christmas a couple of years ago and never got around to playing it so with time on my hands for a while here I've been hitting the links from my couch. It was all very frustrating at first what with the puny 210 yard drives I was hitting (try playing Pebble when you can only hit it that far and see how screwed you are) and the 20-foot putts I was easing 40-feet past the hole. But, like anything else, I lived and learned. I got better. I entered my first two "tournaments" over the weekend and promptly missed the cut in each, including a disastrous 83 in the second round at the aforementioned Pebble Beach. Now I'm playing an event at the Blue Monster--Doral--down in Miami. I opened with a 73 replete with four bogeys and thought that if I could do it again I might have a chance to make the cut and start building the bank account I need to buy better equipment so I can hit it farther and straighter and all like that there when, to my amazement, I shot a 66 in the second round. I not only made the cut, I played my way into contention; into the top ten! I followed that up with a, if I may say so myself, brilliant 65 in the third round yesterday and now I lead the tournament by 3 heading into the final round! I've been thinking in golfspeak all day. "There's still a lot of golf to be played...I've been striking it well but there are a lot of great players out there and we'll take it one shot at a time..." that sort of thing. But boy, it would be HUGE to win. Huge.

A victory means I could play in the US Open and the British Open as you need to have at least one tournament win to qualify in this game for those events.

Plus, being that it's Tiger Woods PGA Tour golf, I think if I win I get to cyber-bang a mediocre-looking Perkins waitress.

Badda-boom, badda-bing. A lot of work to get to that joke, eh? I'll let you know how it all turns out. Hell, I might even live-blog the final round. I am so excited...