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It's always fascinating to review the previous year's activities. This was, mostly, a great year, though being hit by an SUV did put a major damper on things for several weeks.

For the third time since I've been in Austin I was in a play (Conversations While Dining Alone - written and directed by Ken Johnson). We had six performances in January (Act 1 starts at with links to the 12 monologues that follow. act 2 ) and filmed a version of it this summer (). It screens at Windsor Park Library on January 22, 2013 at 6:30. For the stage version I also served as the stage manager, which initially was a challenge since I was given little preparation. I did very well once I had time to prepare properly. The finale from the play, "The N Word" can be viewed at .

In January 2013 I will be in another play, 9/11- the Al Qaeda press conference, which will be performed January 16 as part of Fronterafest. () I was in a play for that festival in 2005, Dear Mr. President. Its playwright, Dave Miller, has been planning since then to write the new play with me in mind and, once he writes the second half of the script, it'll happen. I will be portraying a press spokesman for Al Qaeda, delivering their viewpoint on that fatal day. It's a very provocative piece and it'll be interesting to see what kind of reaction it evokes.

It was a very good year for me as an actor in films. I got my first voiceover role (paid, no less) in Speed Levitch's (produced by Rick Linklater) web series for Hulu, Up to Speed (which you can see at ,p0,d0). I'm the voice of the bridge. It was over two months after the audition before I learned I had gotten the part; I had completely forgotten that I had auditioned for the project until I got the script.

I acted in seventeen films, three of which can be viewed on Youtube. Guardian Angel (I'm a patient) (); The Last Carnival (); and After ()

In Greenbelt I was cast as Leslie (the infamous cross-dressing character who was an Austin icon for years; he died this year and his obit appeared in the New York Times).

I attended two more great Will Wallace workshops and Will cast me in his feature film, Red Wing. I had to travel to Whitewing (40 miles north of Dallas) driving 535 miles the day of the shoot. Thanks to this role, I became SAG eligible. I got a great role in a third feature, Sacrifice, thanks to a video audition.

Marilyn Rucker cast me in a music video, Rude Jogger (). The song was based on a John Kelso column and Kelso appears in the video. Among the other films were Heelers () and Misanthropos. In both a part was written just for me. The latter also led to a role in The Dead Thing (shot by the same crew).

I discovered I could get into almost any Austin City Limits taping, but only went to three this year (most didn't interest me). Bonnie Raitt was a wonderful taping and it was a real treat to finally get to see her perform. An added treat for that taping was the presence of Michael Morton, sitting two rows behind me. I was able to tell him after the taping that his interview (two days earlier) on Overheard was very moving. For information on tapings and a chance to see them, go to . For upcoming ACL tapings, go to

I was able to attend every taping of Overheard with Evan Smith (18 of them) until my accident. Highlights were Deepak Chopra, Meat Loaf, Elie Wiesel (courtesy of Ballet Austin - they had the first three rows reserved for their members, but my usual front row seat was reserved for me. I chatted with their choreographer and executive director, both of whom remembered a former student of mine, Marta Bechtol, who'd been with the Ballet in the early 1990s), Seymour Hersh, Robert Caro (who remembered me), Michael Morton (released in 2011 after 25 years in prison after being railroaded for a murder he didn't commit), and Gloria Steinem. If you're interested in attending Overheard tapings, I post info on tapings /g/UpcomingOverheards.

Some notable people I saw (and in a few cases talked to) were Martin Short, Helen Prejean (Dead Man Walking), Steve Inskeep (NPR's Morning Edition), Frank Deford, David Maraniss, Jack Abramoff, Paul Williams, Sissy Spacek and Stephen Tobolowsky (I highly recommend his podcast, the Tobolowsky Files).

I saw several former students this year. DeeDee Smith was at an art exhibit by Karen Oliphint. Cynthia Lucio and her daughter, Alison Stout-Marquez (one of the rare child-parent duos I taught) were at the corner gas station. I met Stephanie Fletcher at Stiles where she works. Manuel Pacheco and Maria Vasquez (married to each other) were at Cheko's, where both work. I also saw A J Curl, at the Honda dealer across from Cheko's. I was shopping at Sprouts when an employee there, Ian Mitchell, saw me. I saw Robyn Greer at a couple of art exhibits that she organized, including ones featuring the art of Mike Zornes. Stacy Bondurant comped me to a screening of Lawless (based on her husband's novel). Oliver Glenn had an exhibit of his art where I saw both him and his creations. Giovanna Rodriguez attended "Conversations While Dining Alone". I discovered that Stephanie Acosta lives two blocks from me and our paths crossed several times; I got her a small role in Greenbelt. Jose Lopez was part of a crew that put a new roof on my home. Gabriel Wisniewski was downtown during SXSW. Adam Medrano saw me as I was walking in his east Austin neighborhood. Demetre Milligan saw me as I was finishing a photo session at UT. I saw several more at Claudia Cordova's and Quinta Gonzales' weddings. At the latter were Sarah, Celia, and Julian, her sibs. I'd let Sarah know I'd be taking photos at her sister's wedding and I became the official photographer for the wedding.

Once again I was able attend most of John Pearson's fantastic master classes. Highlights were Terry Lickona (Austin City Limits producer), Justin Lin (Fast & Furious franchise), David Gordon Green, and Peter Hedges (one of the best classes ever - his first answer ran about 20 minutes). I just learned that the next classes will be in the fall instead of the usual spring semester.

I saw twenty-three plays this year. The standouts were Young Frankenstein, The Man Who Planted Trees, and Fuddy Meers. I've seen Pilobolus nine times before and it was a real treat to see them yet again. They are one of the most amazing dance companies in the world.

I only had four photo sessions this year, and all resulted in lots of fun and some great photos: thanks to Laura Hernandez, Christal Cureington, Ashlyne Balusek, and Nicole Franco. I hope to do another shoot with all of them. I got roles in Greenbelt for Laura and Ashlyne.

For the sixth consecutive year I read 365 books (the grand total is up to 8375 books). Some of the best nonfiction books: The Shadow Factory (James Bamford – on the NSA); Sacco & Vanzetti (Bruce Watson); The Big Rich (Bryan Burrough - Texas Oil); Empire Of The Summer Moon (S C Gwynne - Quanah Parker & his mother); El Sicario (Molly Mollow - an assassin for the drug cartels in Mexico); Dragon Fighter (Rebiya Kadeer - Uyghar Woman Persecuted By China); Rawhide Down (Del Wilber - the Reagan Assassination Attempt); Reckless Endangerment (Gretchen Morgenson - Fannie/Freddie & the economy); Stories I Only Tell My Friends (Rob Lowe); Nothing To Envy (Barbara Demick - life in North Korea); Steve Jobs (Walter Isaacson); Horns Of A Dilemma (Kenneth Ashworth - Frank Erwin & UT); The Wrong War (Bing West - the Afghan War); Wonder Girl (Don Van Natta - Babe Didrikson Zaharias); Bottom Of The 33rd (Dan Barry - longest baseball game ever); Wicked Bugs (Amy Stewart); Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood's Golden Age at the American Film Institute: Next Generation and Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood's at the American Film Institute: Golden Age (both by George Stevens Jr); Front Of The Class (Brad Cohen - a master teacher with Tourette's) The Passage of Power (Robert Caro - LBJ); Barack Obama (David Maranis); Enemies (Tim Weiner - the FBI); Do Not Ask What Good We Do (Robert Draper - why the current Congress is such a colossal failure); Dropped Names (Frank Langella); Bill Veeck (Paul Dickson - the unique baseball owner); and The Oath (Jeffrey Toobin - the Roberts Court).

Some of the best fiction (more than usual this year): Where'd You Go Bernadette (Maria Semple); the WWW trilogy and Triggers (Robert J Sawyer); the Graceling Realm books (Kristin Cashore); Every Day (David Levithan); Cinder (Marissa Meyer - 1st in a series, next book out in 2013); The Schwa Was Here, The Shadow Club, the Unwind trilogy, and the Skinjacker trilogy (all by Neal Shusterman - I read nineteen of his books this year).

As always, I saw many movies. My favorites for the year: Silver Linings Playbook, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Unreal Dream (documentary on Michael Morton - should be out in 2013), The Other Son, Lincoln, Gregory Crewdson, Paul Williams Still Alive, A Separation, Headhunters, 2 Filhos De Francisco, Her Master's Voice, Margaret, and Argo.

I was able to finally complete and listen to my expanded My Word collection (the great BBC show) (downloadable at ); in the process of gathering My Word shows I discovered another BBC show, Just a Minute. Through a contact in the UK who wanted my My Word shows, I have 4 DVDs of about 800 Just a Minute shows. I've now listened to about 350 of the shows (of 840). The show will be broadcasting a new series in February 2013 and is in its 46th year with Nicholas Parson, the host, still going strong at age 89; he's never missed a broadcast (). A third major find late this year was about 270 of the Burns and Allen show from the '30s through 1950 (George Burns and Gracie Allen) ().

In March my doctor learned that I had small blockage in one neck artery and for several weeks I had physical therapy to deal with the problem.

I attended an amazing surprise party for my friend Cherry for her birthday party, which was exceptionally elaborate and, for a change, a total surprise.

In September I discovered that my friend Shana Norton was filming the Urban Bloom Dance Project and wanted friends to shoot photos and videos for it. The work was filmed in East Bouldin Creek with a dance company from Houston. My two cameras added a lot of great footage. () The music is by one of my favorite composers, Alan Hovhaness, and the dancers were amazing.

My health has been mostly good; I continue to walk a lot; in fact I didn't even drive 'till July. For the first time ever I walked 22 miles in one day. In ten months this year I walked 400 miles. Last year I logged 4696 miles, but due to the accident this year that dropped to 4614 miles (an average of 12.6 miles a day - until the accident I was averaging 14 miles a day). Every year since I started using a pedometer in 1999 the total distance had gone up until this year. I was able to avoid driving 97.5% of the time; up from 92% last year, 82% in 2010 and 73% in 2009. As a result I only needed to fill the tank twice (and the second time was the last day of the year).

On Saturday, October 13th I left my car at the Round Rock Honda dealer for a minor recall issue. I had planned to see a movie at the discount theater while they were taking care of the car. I crossed Mays Street and (with a pedestrian light) started to cross Old Settlers when I was hit by that infamous "car outta nowhere". I was knocked about ten feet. I never lost consciousness and remained fully alert. Three folks got out of their cars, helped gather my belongings, and called 911. One (a pre-med) gave me the standard consciousness tests (follow my finger, what's your name, date, etc). The driver remained in her car (the witnesses and I WERE blocking her path) and received a ticket. The fire department medics soon arrived followed by the police and an ambulance. I landed on my knees, forehead (a deep cut which required glue, but no stitches); the back of my right hand, right ankle, right elbow (this was a long bruise, and I had to warn nurses to fasten the BP cuff above it when they took vitals). The policeman took my ID and wrote up a report, which he later delivered to me at the hospital. A couple of weeks later I was pleased to learn that I was actually covered by my wonderful auto insurance company (USAA).

The ambulance took me to the Seton ER. This was the second time in my life I'd been in an ambulance. The other time I was about ten years old; that time, like an idiot, I decided to ride my bike in the face of a rare New Jersey hurricane (one much less destructive than Sandy). The wind knocked me off the bike and I regained consciousness when I felt the brick pavement under the ambulance's wheels.

At Seton, after performing a CT scan and x-rays, the nurse got me up three times to see if I could walk. I could barely do so, becoming light-headed right away. After two hours, I was able to phone the Honda dealer who sent someone to leave my car at the hospital and deliver the keys directly to me.

A new shift doctor came on duty and told me "This is the ER, we need to get you OUT, stat." (I'd already signed the discharge papers.) He made me get up and walk; immediately my BP dropped to about 60/30. This convinced him that I wasn't ready. They ran another CT scan. After another four hours in the ER they moved me upstairs to a hospital room. My left lower leg was swollen where the car hit me and a portable x-ray unit was brought to the room; luckily, it was just swollen with no breakage (it was still discolored a month later, but has since cleared up.)

An orthopedist came by on Sunday and told me the CT scan showed that I had a fractured pelvis but that it was a clean fracture. One month later I had to drive to Georgetown to see him (at the time not an easy drive since it was very uncomfortable to sit down, especially for a long drive) and he gave me a clean bill of health.

The first two or three days I experienced something I later heard about in an interview with Oliver Sacks and which I suspect is covered in his latest, no doubt, great book, Hallucinations. I thought I saw people in the room when I knew there wasn't anyone else in the room and knew that I was fully awake. It was a very strange and rather scary experience.

There was an alarm in case I got out of bed (which I had no intention of doing) and I was wearing a "fall risk" bracelet. On Monday they gave me a stool softener to help with a BM; nothing. That evening I requested an enema or suppository from the 7 pm nurse (they're on 12 hour shifts). She had to phone the doctor for authorization, which delayed the procedure until 9:30. She thought it might take 10-15 minutes to kick in, but it took 5 hours. Luckily the nurse had left a bedpan. When I buzzed for help, the other nurse scolded me for not calling him when I had the need. As if he would have been there on time!!

The first day or two in the hospital my still-working iPod helped pass the time, but I knew that the battery would only last so long. I especially enjoyed listening to some of the early broadcasts of Just a Minute. Then I discovered that the hospital had internet, though their keyboard wasn't very good. The TV screen was hard to read (it was across the room and I couldn't use my glasses, since the frames were battered in the accident). Thus it was impossible to check Facebook or email. So I mainly used it to listen to WBUR (a great Boston NPR station - fascinating to hear coverage of hurricane Sandy), ABC R (in Australia) and some of BBC radio's great programs. My neighbor Mikki posted an update on my Facebook page notifying my friends that I was in the hospital & it was very sweet of Tammy Watkins to phone after seeing the update.

A physical therapist came by once a day Sunday through Thursday for very brief visits; on the third visit I had her write down a list of exercises that I could work on; some were in-bed and some sitting. My hospital doctor noted that I could either go to a rehab facility or stay in the hospital; she recommended against the rehab since I was relatively healthy. Since the rehab required a minimum stay of five days, I decided against it. By Wednesday I was able, with a walker, to get out of the room and on a small loop around some rooms. That wore me out. Thursday I was very tired, but was ready to be discharged. My next-door neighbors, Jennings and Mikki, picked me up so one of them could drive my car back.

We stopped by the HEB on the way home to get my meds, which sadly, prolonged the BM story. They were for the pain, but also caused incontinence. The next day my other next-door neighbor took me to pick up replacement frames for my glasses. (The optician later let me know that he was authorized to replace the lenses for free, since they had a scratch-free warranty.)

By Monday, I had not only not had another BM, but three or four meals wouldn't stay down; spitting the food up immediately, reflecting a blocked system. I phoned my doctor to see about getting a suppository, which Jennings picked up, along with an enema. I inserted the suppository about 2 pm and four hours later discovered it had fallen out. I had no better luck with the enema, with most of it ending up on the bedsheets.

I phoned a friend who is a nurse, but didn't hear back from her for several days and posted a desperate plea for a doctor or nurse on my neighborhood's listserve. Luckily I got a phone call from Ruth, a former nurse (now an APL librarian), who read my post and volunteered to come by. It turned out that she recognized my name from the listserve and had seen me at her branch when they screened some Polish films. When the suppository she gave me that night didn't help, she came by the next morning and gave me a second, which also failed.

My doctor's office told me I'd need to go to an ER since I was most likely impacted. My friend Elle gave me a ride to St. David's ER. I arrived at 1:00; after waiting an hour I was finally seen by a pre-ER nurse. I then had to wait 'till about 5:00 before a room became open. When Elle had picked me up I thought I had brought a book to read, suspecting that there might be a wait, but discovered that I'd left it at home when I'd grabbed my walker. Luckily I had my iPod with me and enjoyed listening to some of the 1940 Burns & Allen shows (the first fourteen that year had a Gracie for President campaign, a candidate for the Surprise party).

Finally, after the ER doctor examined and confirmed the impaction, the nurse gave me a double enema that broke the blockage right away. I still had to wait another 90 minutes for the doctor to officially discharge me. Ruth's arrival may have helped get him to act. Ruth told me that the long times are not unusual for an ER. (She used to work at St. David's)

I was completely homebound for a month, recovering very slowly, but also very consistently. The week before the election, I got a ride in order to vote early. Luckily, I was able to bypass a very long line, sign in, then bypass a second shorter line (of about ten) waiting for a voting booth to open up. The wait time most likely would've been about two hours. For the first time ever I missed attending the Austin Film Festival (for which I had already bought a film pass), the Texas Book Festival, and a few tapings of Overheard with Evan Smith (I learned that Evan, who usually acknowledged my presence at most tapings, announced the reason for my absence.) I almost got to one taping when Dr. Bob promised to give me a ride, but he tried to pick me up on the wrong block.

For the first time ever, I missed one of Will Wallace's wonderful workshops. I also lost a rare paid acting gig; I think its director may be able to cast me in a future project.

Since I moved to my home in the 1980s I have maintained a block list, and thus was able to call upon eight neighbors to pick up groceries for me, pick up/return library books, help with the trash barrels, and repair my iPod's earbuds.

On November 17 my scene in Misanthropos was filmed; the director came by a few days before the shoot and chose my wardrobe; and I got a ride to the set from one of the actors. A few days later I was able to start getting out of the house for movies, plays, concerts, though I was moving very slowly for some time.

I am about 99% healed, with minor pelvic pain and occasional pain in the lower legs. Scars remain on my right knuckles, right knee, and right elbow and I'm wondering if those will ever clear up. As painful as the experience once I fully realize that it could have been much worse.

Hoping that 2013 is a great year for all.