Two notes from a friend in need

> Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2011
> Dear Friends
> "Into each life some rain must fall" -- If I remember correctly, the second line of that old song was "But too much has fallen in mine."  But until 5 days ago that was not really true in my case.  My doctor had just recently given me, at the age of 77, a clean bill of health, and remarked on how "benign" my medical history had been.  I could only agree that "yes,  I have been very lucky."
>  6 days ago, my luck finally ran out.
>
> Although I still have no memory of the incident, so  violently did it occur, while taking one of my usual early morning walks in Santa Barbara, I was struck by a car while crossing a street in a residential neighborhood not far from my home.  Although the police have all the relevant information -- it was not a hit and run -- details about the driver, who was, I believe, young, the vehicle, and the. exact place and time of the accident, have not yet been made available to me.  Nor, so far as I know, has anybody involved in it yet attempted to get in touch with me.
>
> Most of what I have to tell you so far will be distinctly downbeat -- so let me at least preface that by saying that, although badly banged up, it appears I have good chances of a full recovery within a few months.
>
> All the best
> Ashleigh Brilliant
>
>
> Please reply to: ashleigh@west.net
>
> Ashleigh Brilliant
> 117 W. Valerio St.,
>  Santa Barbara CA 93101 USA
> (805) 682 0531
> www.ashleighbrilliant.com
>

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ASHLEIGH BRILLIANT, 117 W. Valerio St. Santa Barbara CA 93101 USA. Phone (805) 682-0531 Orders:(800) 952-3879, Code #77. Creator of POT-SHOTS, syndicated author of I MAY NOT BE TOTALLY PERFECT, BUT PARTS OF ME ARE EXCELLENT. 10,000 copyrighted BRILLIANT THOUGHTS available as cards, books etc.World's highest-paid writer (per word). Most-quoted author (per Reader's Digest.) Free daily Pot-Shot cartoon: www.ashleighbrilliant.com CATALOGS:[h&m included]. Starter $2. Complete Printed version: $25 Electronic Text-Only (emailed $25, on CD $30). Electronic Illustrated Catalog/Database (CD only) $105 (includes shipping anywhere). Details: www.ashleighbrilliant.com/IllustratedCatalog.html

> Thur Feb 3 2011
> Dear Friends,
> Forgive me for imposing these thoughts on you, but if my accident of a week ago had killed me outright instead of just leaving me a mangled wreck, it would probably have been better for everybody -- but certainly for me.
>
> I  am currently a patient in the Mission Terrace Convalescent Hospital, having been moved here 2 days ago after 5 days in Cottage Hospital (both in Santa Barbara).
>
> I LOOK terrible, and feel worse than I look.  My face is a gory Halloween mask.  My mobility is extremely limited.  I have been constipated and suffering much insomnia for several days.  My appetite is negligible.  But those are the worst things, and I must admit that there are also many hopeful and encouraging signs.
>
> For one thing, I am urinating OK on my own, even though my Urologist had been threatening to put me back on a catheter, despite the fact that I feared and fought this,  because of a previous experience with catheter-caused infection.
>
> For another thing, it cannot be denied that there are a lot of good kind people
> out there, who really want to help.  You know who they are, and you yourself may actually be one of them.
> Of course, the most remarkable are those who devote themselves to people in situations like mine -- especially the workers who are willing to deal with the revolting details of physical functions which have gone out of control.
>
> Then there are the friends and visitors  --and particularly my wife Dorothy, struggling at 79 to deal with her own problems of scoliosis and spasmodic dysphonia -- and our long-time helper Peggy Sue Lemkuil, whose own mother is currently in hospital with knee surgery.
>
> Then, although modern medicine doesn't have all the answers, it can alleviate
> pain and provide sleep in dramatic ways.
>
> So,  since we must still be here on earth a while longer, let me share with you the most positive reaction I've had to this experience so far:  The automobile accident, which includes, as in my present case, pedestrians being struck by cars, has always been to me one of the most significant aspects of American social history, and particularly associated with Southern  California, which is where the Mass Automobile Culture first emerged anywhere in the world, in the decade of the 1920's. Forty decades later, when in my own twenties, and newly arrived as a graduate student from England, I chose to make the Automobile the subject of my own Berkeley PhD in American History.  The result eventually became my book, THE GREAT CAR CRAZE:  HOW SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA COLLIDED WITH THE AUTOMOBILE IN THE 1920's.  And it had a whole chapter devoted to what I called "The New Terror."  Not long ago I had a chance to write a review of  a new history of the automobile in California, (in the Journal Of The California Historical Society) in which I took advantage of the opportunity to quote just one sentence from my own work:  "This reviewer's one appearance in the text hereby happily acknowledged--is my observation, concerning the streets of Los Angeles in the 1920s, that
> 'Never before in human history, except in time of war, had so many people been exposed in the course of their daily lives to the risk of violent death.' "
>
> All the best
> Ashleigh Brilliant
>
> P.S. You can buy my book "The Great Car Craze" -- and thereby (dare I suggest it?) express some solidarity with me in this ordeal -- on my website at www.ashleighbrilliant.com
> The price is $25, Including U.S. Shipping, or $30 which includes shipping anywhere else.