Looking back, it wasn't too bad

You know, I have to admit, that I’ve never done a blog like this. I’ve never really been the “Share with the Web world” kind of person. Granted, if there was a question that someone had about me, I’d gladly answer it. I figure, if they are going to ask, I can be kind and answer in return. Besides, I’ve lived a life worth of a bestselling novel.

36 years ago I burst about this world. I was pretty much a normal baby, crying for attention, wanting to be burped, etc. However, I was born, with a broken leg. I was born with a bone disease known as Neurofibromatosis. It caused an abnormality in the development of some of my bones. Some examples, I no bone structure behind my right eye, which makes it appear smaller and swollen. I was also born with a left leg that was shorter than the right one.

And there is where my life story lays. My left leg, an appendage that has seen its share of surgeries. The first coming when I was a mere 18 days old. I would be in a cast from that time, until I turned four years old. During that time, I had a surgery that involved my left leg being hooked up to an electrical machine that was supposed to stimulate growth. It pretty much only stimulated the growth of the electric bill. There was also the time I had a bone taken from my right leg, and inserted into my left leg. They hoped that this would in turn spur growth in my leg. Alas, it did not. It didn’t though.

Now, it was during this time that I was in a double cast. From the waist on down, I was in the cast, with a bar going across my leg to keep them straight. Now, I managed to do something that the doctors found perplexing. I managed to wear out the double cast. I used to crawl around, using my hands and arms as feet and legs. This included crawling up a flight of stairs. I developed a pretty solid upper body, save for the flabby stomach. Other than that, my arms were pretty toned and strong.

It simply bewildered the doctors that I could actually crawl up the stairs. I was a kid, and I didn’t know what it was like to face something I couldn’t overcome. Deep down, I think that all kids have this strength.

I actually cried the first time I had to go without a cast. Hey, I had always had one, I couldn’t remember a time that I didn’t have one. Now, something really cool was going on that I really should touch on here. My surgeries were making me a little famous. At the age of four, I had already appeared in the National Enquirer, and the local newspapers, the Democrat and Chronicle, and Times-Union.  This does not include being interviewed on local television. All of this attention, because many of the surgeries I was having were first of their kind. If I’m not mistaken, the bone graph surgery was video-taped and currently sits in the library of Johns Hopkins Medical School.  During this time, I got to talk to Erik Estrada, Ron Carey, and Washington Redskins placekicker Mark Mosley. During the NFL season, Mark would call my house the Saturday before every game. Though deep down I was secretly a Tampa Bay Bucs fan, I rooted for the Redskins because of Mark, and harbored a hatred of them when they released him from the roster. I cheered the Browns when they signed him, and became a Broncos hater for life when his last chance at going to the Super Bowl was stopped by Denver. Although, I did cheer the Redskins when they played Denver, and the Redskins had long time Bucs QB Doug Williams at the helm.

Ron Carey kept sending us holiday cards for years. He also sent us an autographed mini poster of the entire Barney Miller Cast. He even sent us sweat shirts of his last TV show, 1989’s Have Faith. Ron passed  away a few years ago.

In October of 1988, I had surgery where they closed the growth plate in my Right leg, in hopes that the legs would even themselves out. Alas, that never happened. However, in December of 1992, I had the surgery that would change my life forever.

It was perhaps the most risky surgery choice. The idea that my left leg would be broken, placed in a lizeroth cage, and I would have to turn four screws four times a day to stretch out the bone.  What made it such a great risk was that I had no guarantee that my left leg would heal if broken, and I stood a chance of losing the leg. It was a risk I had to take, because I’d grown tired of having to buy shoes, and then having a lift placed on it. I wanted normal shoes for once.

December 6^th, 1992, I had the surgery. I was out of school for almost a year and a half. I missed out on the majority of my sophomore and Junior years. It was a struggle getting used to the cage being on my leg, and trying to get around could be a pain. It was a few weeks before I could even manage climbing the stairs. I manager to do my homework, work the trading card store my parents owned, and live a somewhat normal life. I still wonder to this day how I managed to get around with the bulky thing on my leg. As for turning the screws, I didn’t feel the pain. I’m sure the notion of  “Stretching bone” sounds painful, but it didn’t bother me at all. December 8^th, 1993, I had the cage removed. I managed to act in a play (Life with Father, I played Clarence) continue to write for the school paper, and get myself back into the routine of academics.  I did suffer a set break, breaking my leg in March of 1994. That didn’t stop me from going to the Senior prom, and even getting some dancing in, along with an impersonation of Beavis.

Now, were going to flash forward about 6 years. Life finds me as a commentator for NMW, a wrestling promotion based in Rochester, New York. I even managed to debut as a heel manager. For the record, the first ten years of my career, I was a heel. I’ve always felt comfortable playing a villain.  After NMW ceased operation, I was a part of the local TV show Wrestlevision. The show highlighted independent feds from across the US, Canada, and even Japan.  It was fun for the first year, until a producer who used the show to lampoon professional wrestling took over, and after that, doing the show became as enjoyable as walking across a bridge made entirely of cactuses. Thankfully, I went from that quickly sinking ship to joining up with Paul McClemmons and POD productions. Finally, I was working with someone who shared my vision of keeping true to old school values, yet still presenting professional wrestling in a modern way.  Over these many years, I’ve gotten to call matches of legends like Jimmy “Super Fly” Snuka, Jeff Jarrett, Raven, Marty Jannetty, and many others.  I also am a part of a locally produced internet radio station on Veetle. I host my own show, called the Metal Mountain, and I co-host Rock N’ Roll Sports, a show that I had done during my college days at MCC. I keep pretty busy these days. I also have a hobby of writing short stories. I hope the finally try and get them published.

Now I’m sure some of you are asking the question. Have I ever thought of what would it be like to not have had Neurofibromatosis? You know what, I can honestly answer that by saying, not really. Granted, there have been those fleeting moments in which I have asked that question of myself. Then I think about those who followed after me.

A few years before I was born, a young boy in Oregon was born with the same illness. His parents opted for choice B, which involved cutting off the leg. My parents chose their option, A, for me to keep my leg. All of those surgeries I mentioned before, all were one of a kind. They had never been done before, I was the first. Before I went through all of that, doctors would actually push the idea of amputation. Now, there are kids today having the surgeries that I’ve endured. They don’t have to worry about amputation being the only option. Yeah, I think that’s a great trade-off for not being able to play little league, or being the pee wee league quarterback (though growing up, I’d realize that I’d love to have been a bruising linebacker).

Looking back, I’d endure the same life, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. And I look at it as simple as this. Because of the fact that no one else is going to have to endure the notion of the losing a limb, which is what made it all worth it.  Did I get to grow up to be the baseball player, football player, or professional wrestler that I wanted to be as a kid? Nope, I grew up something much greater than that. I grew up to blaze a medical trail. I can’t put it any better.

Now, I do want to clear up a little final bit of business. As I stated to start off this blog, I’m really not one to open myself on the net like this. I have to admit that I felt a little inspired. And for that I would like to thank April Hunter, who wrote a blog this past week, and shared an amazing story from her childhood. And as I sit here, writing these words, I realize and appreciate the emotional strength it takes to write this.  And I hope that everyone enjoyed this little walk in my world.

Thank you.

Post election thoughts

Guess everyone, you survived it. That’s right, you survived not a Zombie apocalypse, you survived that the 2012 election campaign. Are you feeling a little better right now? Besides, it’s it good to know that those political vote for me ads are now replaced by countless advertisements for shit you don’t need, and pretty much, shit you don’t want in the first place. Yes, everything is back in order!

It’s funny to see the Donald Trumps and Ted Nugents of the world lose their collective minds. Ted Nugent sent out tweets to his followers that contained as many grammatical errors of that of a teenage girl texting, and Donnie “Small Potatoes” Trump, well, he’s just gone stark raving mad. It got to the point that his handlers actually had to get Donnie to retract some of his tweets. I tweeted Donnie boy back, and asked him such hard hitting questions like “Don’t you have another business to run into the ground?” I didn’t get any tweets back, nor did I expect any, mainly because Donnie doesn’t have any balls. He lost those to Ivana as part of the divorce settlement years ago. And Ted Nugent, what about him? I think he’s gotten a hold of some tainted meat that has driven him insane. Either that or he’s been lying all these years about being drug free and secretly does whatever drugs Keith Richards drops out of his jacket.

Donald Trump complained about the Electoral College in which Obama won. Trump cried that “Romney won the popular vote, and we need to get rid of the Electoral College vote.” Yeah, you didn’t hear Trump say that when Bush lost the popular vote, but got in on the Electoral College. Remember folks, to conservatives like Trump, rules are only good when they work out in their favor. Once the rules don’t favor them, they cry that the rule needs to go. Remember when they actually tried to get rid of filibusters? In 2009, they all over a sudden wanted them back.

But it’s not just a washed up has been like Ted Nugent (face it Ted, you haven’t been an important part of music since Tommy Shaw and Jack Blades carried your ass as a member of the Damn Yankees), or egomaniacs like Donnie boy Trump that utterly lost it, and melted down for the whole world to see. Some big names in the GOP are going insane as well.

Did anyone else see Karl Rove’s meltdown on Fox News? It was too the point he kept refuting everything that showed the election was going Obama’s way, to the point that Rove took over as director, and pretty much pushed a Fox News anchor to ask one of their analyst if he still felt Obama was going to win (see Rove demands he changes his mind) Rove was defiant to the very end, even after the AP, Reuters, CNN, Current, Fox News, and even Mitt Romney called the election for President Obama.  It was funny to watch Mr. Crossroads crumble under the knowledge that Americans were rejecting the far right Tea Party members the GOP hitched their wagon too. It was an idea that proved near fatal for the party.  For all the money that the GOP superpacs spent, they got very little for it. Kind of how the Oakland Raiders felt after drafted JaMarcus Russell, and giving him all that money to be the worst quarterback in NFL history.

We had Colorado legalize marijuana! Yes, about freaking time. Now the state will spent less on prisons because they will no longer clog it up with people enjoying a harmless herb. By the way, I’m fully in favor of marijuana being legalized for medical purposes. I have written two papers, and even given a speech on the benefits of the drug.

And major congrats to Tammy Baldwin, the first openly lesbian woman to be elected to the senate from the state of Wisconsin. That’s progress. And it’s about damn time. She easily defeated Tommy Thompson, and showed that maybe we’re actually going to be turning the page. Now if only someone could be “openly gay” without the title attached to them.

Now a poplar trend was of the “tea Party” republicans getting voted off the island, mainly because the people that elected them saw what the rest of the country warned them about…these folks were freaking crazy. I mean some of these wanted to turn the clock back to the 1910’s. Todd Akin, Dick Murdock, whose views on rape were so extreme that anyone with common decency knew that in no shape or form could these smucks be allowed in any seat of power. Take New York’s Ann Marie Buerkle, whose goal was to keep the country from extending the debt ceiling. An elected leader actually said that her goal was to destroy the credit rating of the US. Really quick for my loyal readers, the debt ceiling allows the country to sell off bonds in order to pay certain debts. It was put into place in 1918. We don’t raise the debt ceiling, we don’t pay off debts, and our credit rating goes to pot. Think of it this way. You sell your Harry Potter books on eBay in order to raise a little cash to pay your credit card bill.

John Boehner, who sanely seems to have realized that voters aren’t stupid, they see that the GOP is trying to handicap President Obama every steps of the way, fighting any and all improvements, said that the GOP “Needs to challenge themselves to find the common ground” As opposed to Lipless Mitch McConnell, who seems to think accepting any idea of President Obama’s to paramount to treason. Mitch has much lip as he does smarts.

So, we’ve made it past another election, and time will tell how everything shapes up.  I can only hope that the GOP puts aside their petty childishness, and decides to work with the president. In all seriousness, the people have spoken, and the message is clear. Cut the crap GOP. The party needs to stop hating on women and Hispanics. That will happen once the Cubs win the World Series.

Okay, that is going to close out this blog. I welcome everyone to leave a comment on this page.

Election day is upon us

Here we are, just hours away from deciding what is going to happen for the next four years. Well, I guess more or less we could be voting for who big business is going to try and buy for the next four years.

Listen, let’s be honest, we haven’t had much luck with presidential candidates that had a business background. George Bush JR couldn’t even run an oil company in Texas. That’s like being a failed drug dealer who lives next door to Lindsay Lohan. Another one would be a failed steroid dealer who lives next to Lance Armstrong. Then again, it is widely speculated that Bush used insider information when it came to selling Harken’s stock (the company that was once Bush’s failed Arbusto Oil).

Hey, we also had Herbert Hoover, who graduated from Stanford with a degree in engineering, and he built an international mining empire. Not bad. However, as a president, Hoover was perhaps the biggest failure of all-time. He cut taxes for those who were doing well, in hopes that it would spur job growth. All it did was create the great depression’s growth. Remember when Candidate Mitt Romney said middle class was $250,000? Herbert Hoover and family kept on like an aristocracy. Every meal had to have formal attire, and had to be a seven course dinner. All of this whilst his citizens stood in soup kitchens, and begging for work.

There was another president who boldly claimed that it was wrong to tax millionaires, and gave them a giant tax cut, perhaps one of the biggest in US history.  He bragged about small government, and spouted outdated maxims on a frugal government. What it did do was spur the great depression, and bring an end to the Calvin Coolidge reign in the White House. H.L. Mencken summed the Coolidge presidency like so “Nero fiddled while Rome Burned, Coolidge only snored.” That was a play on the fact that Coolidge like to sleep, to the point when informed the danger that the KKK was presenting, Coolidge slept on his options.

Hey, that beats the man who Coolidge took the place of. Good old’ Warren G. Harding, a man who famously once bet the entire White House china in a card game. Oh, and then was that nasty Teapot Dome scandal that came to light after Harding’s death, and saw Albert Fall become the first cabinet officer in US history to go to prison.

And I could go on about Ronald Reagan, who saw nothing with selling weapons to the highest bidder (and getting those under him to take the fall, not bad for a man who was nearly a member of the communist party), but hey, why strike out against the man the Republicans who in Christ like regard.

And I’m not going to knock George Bush sr. He had his flaws (like giving birth to junior, and vomiting on Japanese diplomats) like any man. However, once he was away from the office, he became almost Jimmy Carter like. He worked with Democrats on social issues, and became buddy-buddy with Bill Clinton. We also had Chester A. Arthur, a man who used the spoils system, and turned his back on same when he got into office, signing into law the Pendleton Act. Although there was that nasty run in with the Chinese, whom he tried to limit on their immigration, that was an awkward moment.

However, when you look at cold hard facts, the declines this nation has suffered through more times than not, occurred when a Republican was in office. And I’m sorry if facts offend certain people that planned on voting for Mitt Romney. Listen, I know that our say is limited, even more so to the Citizens United case, which allowed corporations to donate unlimited funds into the coffers of politicians.  But let’s look at one simple undeniable fact.

Mitt Romney made his fortune, for the most part off of Bain Capital. Bain Capital made its mark buying under performing companies, shredding the workforce, and showing higher profits, even though many times, they simply shut down companies, and took the tax write off when they listed it as a loss on their tax returns.

And we won’t even go into how dangerous the idea of attempting to overturn  Roe V Wade. This is something they might be able to accomplish because a few justices are going to be retiring during the next four years. A reversal of that historic landmark decision would bring us back to the days of when women would routinely die in back ally abortion clinics.  Hey, let’s not forget that many of these deaths would be the result of poorly trained doctors with limited education.

So, there it is. Either vote President Obama back in office, let him continue his FDR attempt to fix the mess he was left by President George Bush jr. Obama wants to fund Pell grants, wean this nation off its gas and oil addiction, and bring home troops from countries they don’t have to be in anymore. Or, you can go the other route. You can give a vote to limit women’s rights, to give the rich tax breaks they don’t need, all the while bringing on another depression.  And let us not forget, cut everything , give billions (yes billions with a B) to the pentagon, and expand American occupation of other nations. By the way, that means more young men and women dying in war.

It’s your decision. It’s that simple.

Bloomberg puts marathon over hurricane victims

One of the greatest regrets of the late Pete Rozelle, long time Commissioner of the NFL, was that he did not cancel the scheduled games the weekend after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He felt at the time, that the games would be a source of healing for the nation. As Redskins Linebacker Sam Huff, a hall of fame player put it years later "As I listened to the Anthem,  my only thought was, what the hell are we doing out here." Flash forward 29 years, to the events after 9/11. They were all canceled.

Which brings me to the New York Marathon. As I write this, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is dead set on having the Marathon go off. It seems rather insulting that a few miles away, people are sifting their their tattered belongings, wondering when their insurance companies are going to be able to help them get back on their feet. There are others who sit in dark houses, no power.

Thee are plenty of others, sitting in nice warm hotel room who are hours away from getting evicted. You see, these rooms are reserved,for the competitors in the New York Marathon. Doesn't matter if these victims of the hurricane have anyplace to go right now, they just have to get out.  All because Mayor Bloomberg is putting others over the ones that are in the greatest of need.

One could wonder what type of philosophy Mayor Bloomberg has employed here. From a human stand point, it doesn't make any sense. Why, after these people just suffered a great loss, would he tell them to get out, that these runners are more important then they are.

I know one thing that you are thinking. The marathon is going to bring in millions of dollars that could go to relief efforts. There is just one flaw with that logic. They city will already have to pay for the scores of police and medical personnel that are going to have to be on stand by. Keep in mind that current relief crews are already stretched to the max,and more are going to come in to help. However, to take away assistance from people whom have just survived a hurricane just boggles. the mind.

I mean, just conjure up the image of any elected official telling storm victims to get the hell out of the hotel room they are needed for others, out of towners, runners. How would you re act. Would you like to see said elected leaders apologize, and let the victims stay? How about telling the runners, the race is canceled? Wouldn't that make sense?

Facts are you have nearly 100 people dead, hundreds of thousands without power as I write this blog at 11am, the Jersey Shore is nearly wiped off the face of the Earth, Rockaway beach is gone. Families are going to struggle to  rebuild. I read a story in the USA Today this morning about a man who lost all of his possession, including those from his now deceased parents, which can never be replaced. And Mayor Bloomberg is going to go ahead with the goddamn Marathon! Mayor Bloomberg, who already has tried to usurp the power of the constitution by trying to say who can get married, what sized soda they can drink, and use the NYPD to illegally track Muslim-Americans, is putting a marathon over the needs of the citizens he was elected to lead.  Maybe Mayor Bloomberg should follow the lead of new Jersey governor Chris Christie, and actually give a damn about the people of his state. Mayor Bloomberg don't give a damn about the people of New York city. The only time he notices them is when he looks to see what he is stepping on.

Congrats, Bloomberg, you've just become the worst mayor in New York history.