Tuesday, Jun. 20, 2006 - 10:56 a.m.

Prayers for a Dear Friend

I guess I am like many of my other friends today, and penning in their journals how petty and insignificant little annoyances in our lives are.� Because the day before yesterday, a very dear man we all know, Randy Gardner, a long time performer at the Texas Renaissance Festival, and someone I am proud to call a friend, was seriously injured in a welding accident.�� Randy was working at a gun range, welding something, the details are fuzzy at this point, when an explosion occurred.� From what I understand, the building he was working in, most likely some kind of shed, was blow to bits, and Randy sustained 2nd and 3rd degree burns on both of his arms and hands, the back of his head, and his back.� He also sustained burns on his face.� He inhaled some of the scorching air and burned his throat as well.� He is currently in the burn unit at Hermann Memorial Hospital in the Texas Medical Center, arguably the finest medical complex in the world.� He is of course of gobs of pain killers, and is being assisted in his breathing.� I understand though that he should be able to breath on his own by tomorrow and they have reduced the oxygen percentage they are administering him.� We understand that Randy holds no health or medical insurance and we will be embarking on some kind of� fund raising project for the coverage of all of his medical bills here very soon.� They are going to be enormous and most likely in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.� Hopefully he will be able to file a successful workman's comp. claim to offset the cost.