Rikki, unfortunately,because of my lung disease, I can no longer sing, which was one of my strong points when I was an entertainer. I always prided myself with my singing ability since I sang my first country song (Old Mountain Dew) at about age 12 while strumming a really ancient guitar. I tried to sing a couple songs last week, and could barely croak them out, let along sing with any degree of quality. I was devastated, to say the very least. Just speaking on the telephone is quite difficult without the aid of supplemental oxygen.

As you know, I recently sold my sailing yacht because I could no longer safely operate it by myself. Single handed sailing requires a lot of difficult, physical tasks, such as hauling an 80-pound mainsail up the mast with a halyard, then furling the jib sail with a furling line and sheeting those sails in. Yes, at some point I had to use hand winches to put the final trim on the sails, but the preliminary trim was all arm strength. Bad lungs don't allow you to do this, or access the foredeck without gasping for every breath. Consequently, I had to sell the boat and ended up selling for $26,000 under the appraised price. That too, was devastating for I truly loved sailing as much or more than I loved playing music and being a professional entertainer.

If I were to purchase an SX-900, which I seriously considered, I talked with my children about playing the keyboard. Neither my daughter or son is interested in playing a keyboard. I gave my son one of my PSR-3000s and he uses it mainly for a drum machine while playing his electric guitar. I still enjoy playing my PSR-S950, and dearly wish I could still sing some of the songs I played, but unless the docs come through with some sort of miracle drug, that just ain't gonna happen.

Three years ago, the docs gave me one to two years to live, so I guess I'm beating the odds, but I know I'm on borrowed time at this stage of the disease. I've already sold and given away nearly all of my equipment that I used on stage, and the only thing remaining is the S-950, one of my custom consoles, a two-tier Quick-Loc X-stand and a Quick-Loc seat with backrest, plus a Bose L1 Compact. One of my musician buddies says he wants the Bose.

Rikki, I was thinking about you last week, thinking about the fun time I had when I worked in Oz, Woomera, SA to be exact, way back in 1960. Thought I would try to do a rendition of Waltzing Matilda on the S-950, but I was having a bad time with my breathing difficulties then so I put the project off until things improved a bit. Still working on the improvement, but if the steroids provide me with a bit of a reprieve, I promise you I will give it a try.

Thanks for your friendship over the years,

Gary