I love the Chicago Blues Fest and try to attend every year. This year blues legend B.B. King was capping off the fest with a performance last Sunday night. You bet we were there with a cooler of sandwiches, tarps to cover wet grass from an earlier storm squall and comfy chairs. We always bring the kids -- while they like to jam with the blues, their biggest highlight is playing frisbee in the open lawn of Chicago's lakefront.

No spring chicken, B.B. King is now 82 years old. Amazing. His guitar 'Lucille' sounded as lithe and young as ever. I did notice B.B. sat on a chair the entire performance. I figured it was because he was an octogenarian, but I just read in the Chicago Tribune that it's because he has complications from diabetes. B.B.'s had type 2 diabetes for over 25 years. I wonder if it's neuropathy.

Over the years, B.B. King has been an admirable advocate of good diabetes control. According to this story in Diabetes Health from 2005, he takes his diabetes seriously and tries to take good care of himself.  His celebrity status advocacy goes a long way to get this message out to people dealing with type 2. I now admire him even more. I mean, here's a legend who does not let complications from type 2 stop him from performing -- he just grabs a chair. I tip my hat to you B.B. King, thanks for the show.