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Robin Williams and I are more connected than I thought
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I've had a good life, so there aren't many things that I feel that I just *must* do before I leave this earth.
But one thing that I *do* want to do - is see Robin Williams - in person. I managed to get tickets to his local performance at UCF (University of Central Florida) - back in December when they went on sale - and I've been looking foward to seeing him - finally - tomorrow night (Friday).
But. I find myself in the hospital. With an Aortic Heart problem. Eerily like Robin himself. So I won't be able to go anywhere tomorrow night. Yeah. I got a part in a movie where I play a man who jogs in order to have his "alone time" and think. I never exercise, but I figured I could play a jogger in a movie. So Tuesday evening, I set out with the film crew - and drove from Orlando - up to Daytona Beach. Wow. Bike Week going on and we head there to shoot a movie. In addition, we're having a nasty cold snap, so each time I have to "get into costume" it means standing in 35-degree weather - with a high wind - in nothing but jogging shorts and a T-shirt. But the Bike Week-er's are handling the cold, so I do it, too. And the resulting shots are haunting - because the film crew has carefully pre-scouted the Daytona Beach Pier and found the lighting to be haunting: individual lightpoles throw pools of light onto the boardwalk - with the sound of the pounding surf nearby - so that as I jog by, I melt in and out of the light. Of course, we have to stop every so often to let one of the Bikers go past: they are allowed to drive right down the boardwalk - past the markers set into the sidewalk - commemorating some of the amazing vehicular feats achieved there on famous Daytona Beach: one of them marking the date that Campbell managed to go 330 MPH. Wow.
And one of the bikers has face paint to make him look like a skeleton - riding his chugging motorcycle - through those same erie, haunting pools of light. Wow.
The evening goes on and we finish filming on Daytona Beach: cold, bleak, blowing - and we just happen to wend our way right down Main street - past bikes parked as tightly as they can be parked - block after block after block of them - but everyone being polite and happy as they brave the cold - and as we hear the RUMBLE of the big engines - splattering the night - all around the city center.
The evening goes on and we proceed to Stetson University in Deland. To a children's playground nearby. To downtown Orlando - right under I4. We're amazed that the Church Street Station area *still* has a collection of people dressed to kill - at 2AM on a Tuesday night. Orlando still has some bling going. Overall, we make quite a little tour of Central Florida.
We finish a shot where I jog along a row - perhaps only 100 yards - and my heart begins to beat wildly. And I can't make it stop, but we go on and finish the shoot - at about 3AM.
I get home and sleep - and in the morning, my heart is still completely erratic, so by evening, I check into the Emergency Room and confirm that I have Aortic Fibrillation: the top half of my heart just isn't pumping any blood. And I worry about making it to the Robin Williams concert.
I finally get checked into my room at 3AM and fall asleep - and my heart finally fixes its rhythm at 4:30AM.
And I wake up to turn on the news in my hospital room - to discover that Robin, too, won't make the concert - because *his* aorta's need surgery. Here's to you, Robin. One of my few remaining "life goals". When you do recover, and I get to travel to wherever my tickets will be good, I'll be wishing that I could swap stories with you - and wonder just how we got so tightly connected that our hearts were apparently linked. Drop me a note if you want to talk, Robin. (smile).
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