The big light-up

Well I had a little feeling to have a big night
And I woke up feeling small and not so brave and not quite right
—Johnny Cash, "The Big Light"



I love Johnny Cash. So much so that I "had a little feeling" to go catch his old band, the Tennessee Three, at a casino north of here. I planned on it for weeks.

Well. That casino was like the worst smoking aversion booth ever created: flashing lights, dinging bells and hundreds of lab rats hunched over slot machines—each one with a heater hanging off his lips. I almost left right there, but made my way to the stage where the band was to play.

Except the band had cancelled. And the casino hadn't bothered to update its web site. Lac Court Oreilles Casino. It's a smoke bomb with surly help, a cobweb site and cancelled acts, as far as I can tell, and should be avoided, unless you like throwing away time and money.

Anyhow, the point of my story is, that my eyes swelled up the following Thursday. Could 20 minutes of thick, blue air trigger Graves' ophthalmopathy? My endocrinologist told me to stay the heck away from secondhand smoke . . .

For the record, I am a former smoker who kicked the habit nine years ago.

By the way, Cash is really wasted on this video, singing about how much he hates hangovers, isn't he?