“Oh every night, and every day
A little piece of you is falling away
But lift your face, the western way, baby
Build your muscles as your body decays.”

A verse from one my all-time favorite songs, “Hammer to Fall” by the inimitable, indispensable Queen. Just a little something that’s been running through my mind tonight as I contemplate my approaching birthday, my various medical misadventures of the past year — long story, but don’t worry, I’m okay — and of course my impending appointment tomorrow with an oral surgeon to get all four of my wisdom teeth yanked, only about 25 years after I probably should have had it done. What can I say, I tend to put things off. As you can probably imagine, I’m really not looking forward to a week of living on Jello and Lortabs. But that’s tomorrow, isn’t it? For tonight, let’s lose ourselves in the rock and roll, shall we? Which, oddly enough, is the general theme of “Hammer to Fall”: