The Terrible Catsafterme

The country was still reeling on October 2, 1971 (exactly 35 years ago today). A major theme park had just opened the day before in Orlando. It was called Walt Disney World and I would remain close friends with it to this day.

I came into this world at 9:10pm. My Dad was in the waiting room watching All in the Family (Archie and the Lock-Up for the record). My Mom had been put under, so I virtually came into the world alone with no one to fuss over me. My my, how nothing has changed.

I weighed 7 lbs. 14 oz., a healthy size with a full head of blonde hair. At least it was blonde by the time my parents actually saw me and all the muck had been cleaned away. Read the rest of this entry »

I am very fortunate to have a diary that I kept for the first part of 1980. I was eight years old at the time and was surprisingly faithful at filling it in…all the way up until April 5. What was so special about this date, I have no idea.

In reading through it, I find the information to be nearly invaluable to me, as it immediately opens a floodgate of memories with the simple scrawling of a few sentences. I find the entries to be a perfect representation of how I feel about this time period, while being incredibly hilarious and an amazingly accurate indicator of the interests that would tightly grip me in the future.

I will transcribe the entries here as best as I can read my handwriting. The entries – with all misspellings intact- will be in bold, with my contemporary comments in italics. Read the rest of this entry »

Ah, the late ’80s. It’s difficult to characterize this time period with sweeping images that would cover this whole five-year period. I was simply changing from year to year so much that the ‘me’ of the mid-80’s had become a completely different person as the decade came to a close. I literally went from being an awkward, gawky young teen to the cusp of fatherhood within this era.

It was during this time period that I think I fully realized that I was completely obsessive about things and had a completely one-track mind when it came to my hobbies. I suppose I had always had it and most certainly still have it to this day. My first wife Lisa always said that I was in a “(fill in blank) phase”, knowing that it would eventually dissipate and a new one would take it’s place. Never more true than it still is today. Read the rest of this entry »

Tiny is one of the most incredible and unique cats I’ve ever had the pleasure to own. She was born on Sept. 9, 2005 and was named Anakin Beard by her foster parents. This adorable kitten came into my life when I was shopping for kittens to give to Ashleigh for Christmas. She was in a tiny cage with her two siblings at the SICSA animal shelter. Although she was soundly sleeping, I asked if I could remove her from the cage. Immediately, she passed my first criteria of a perfect cat by beginning to purr.

Next, I set her atop an eye-level cat tower to look her over and see how she responded to me. She quietly stared at me and then took her paw and gently removed my glasses from my face. That did it – I had to have her! Read the rest of this entry »

As the VH1 series boldly states “I LOVE THE 80’s.” This time period saw my development from a little boy into a young teen. Memories get even more crystal clear during this time period. When asked what my favorite year is (and we all know how often that happens!), I usually say 1984. This time period was my sixth grade year when things were exciting, music was great, girls were blossoming, and grade school was coming to a close.

But even before ’84, life was good. Thinking back, the early ’80’s put me in mind of Sons of the Desert meetings in Springfield, our VCR and video camera, Read the rest of this entry »