WE'LL SOON BE SEEING YOU IN ALL THE OLD FAMILIAR PLACES

PLEASE PUT YOUR THOUGHTS, PRAYERS AND POSITIVE ENERGY TOWARD
HEIDI'S LONG, BUT SUCCESSFUL RECOVERY FROM SURGERY
To all our Greater Miami haunts -- from Confucio Express to Xixon, from Gold Prague Bakery to, Bulldog Barbecue, Piccola Italia, Zuperpollo, Chocolate Fashion, Captain Jim's, Osteria del Teatro and even Wings & Curls up in Hollywood -- please understand that I won't be bringing my bride of more than two decades around for awhile.

My wife, my hero, my best pal Heidi is having surgery to replace her artificial hip replacement.

When Heidi gets home from the hospital and rehabilitation center, I'll be caring for her 24-7 till she's mended.

Heidi has beautiful blue eyes, a devastating sense of humor and, oh yeah, severe rheumatoid arthritis.

Shortly before we married in 1988, she endured joint replacement surgery on both knees. I'd say her being able to literally walk down the aisle was a minor miracle, but her razor wit would cut me to shreds for writing such a cliche.

Before we met, Heidi had already spent more than a cumulative year of her life in hospitals, recovering from major surgery on both hips, both ankles, and a few assorted shoulders and elbows thrown in for good measure.

Two summers after we wed, Heidi missed nearly a half year of work recovering from a severely broken leg.

Not long after we bought our first house, an accidental fall from her wheelchair resulted in another major fracture and another six months spent recuperating.

Through it all, she's put up with me.

That's right, she puts up with me.

I'm the one who yells and otherwise behaves badly when the stress gets to me.

Heidi is the one who is strong as a rock.

Sure, she's been known to cuss like a sailor when stitches are coming out, but that's not bad considering what my love of 25 years goes through.

Otherwise, Heidi approaches extreme pain, tedium and other aspects of physical recovery with the same combination of power and grace that my fellow Akron native LeBron James uses driving to the net.

During her months of excruciating recovery, I'll once again try to learn from my spouse -- the person who's taught me more about life than a roomful of professors and elder statesmen.

Say a prayer for Heidi.

And if you see us rolling through historic William Jennings Bryan Park (which we worked tirelessly to save from an idiotic overdevelopment plan) on a mid-October morn, you'll know she's on the mend and we'll soon be seeing you in all the old familiar places.