Back to the doc...

I would tell you to have a seat, but I can't really sit myself. So I'll just lie here a minute while we talk if you don't mind.

Headed back to the doc tomorrow. Still haven't passed the stone. Gotta have some relief. Don't know if this will mean more surgery or what. I just hope he says, "It's moving through your system, you'll pass it tomorrow."

(Crossing fingers)

People have asked what a kidney stone feels like. I can't explain it. Think of the worst pain you've ever had and combine it by 100 percent. My mother birthed her children naturally; she says passing a stone is worse.

Today was a little brighter thanks to my discovery of a "can't believe it's this good" live Bobby Darin album, "Live! At The Desert Inn," from the early '70s. I'll review it when I feel better, but what a show!

The concert was recorded at the nadir of Darin's career, a mere two years before his untimely death. And yet his voice is in fine form. The so-called nightclub crooner shows surprising relevance (for the times) on a superb Beatles medley, a kicking version of Jackie Wilson's "(Your Love's Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" and a bluesy version of James Taylor's "Fire and Rain."

His own "Mack the Knife" swings easy (as always). But the real treat is a soulful, sincere cover of Tim Hardin's "If I Were A Carpenter."

It's a cliche, I know, but they really don't make 'em like this anymore.

Anyhow, wish me luck at the urologist tomorrow. I don't mind telling you this has been the roughest period of my life in a physical sense. I'm ready for it to be over.

But, at the same time, I'm mighty thankful it isn't any worse.

Just take the hurt away, will ya?