A Quickie…

OK quick post. I have to work so this is a quick update. I’ve been on the Cape (Cape Cod) and though I did have my laptop with me I was on a phone line connection and all I really did was check my e-mails. Now that I’m back on my home wireless I can take a moment to write.

The cape was beautiful as always. Spent lots of timeon the bayside in warm ocean water. The kids had a blast and we all made some great vacation friends. Chris and I spent some time with the Sincalirs from Westchester in NY. Just a fun couple with similar backgrounds, likes and dislikes, etc. Great conversation, a few drinks and some pizza. What more could you ask for?

catching up

I know I haven’t blogged for a while bu tmy fingers are killing me from typing. I have to start using voice recognition software because I can’t keep going like this. It isn’t just the MS, I think I have that carpal tunnel thing too and it’s just getting worse.  I hope I’m forgiven if this post is too short.

The kids are doing well though they didn’t go to Ogden Rec day camp this week because we are trying to really get Alex’s strep cured this time. He is taking a stroner antibiotic. I hope it helps. I think it may upset his stomache a little, but he really takes it like champ. We want everyone to be well for our trip on Friday to the Cape. I’m not looking forward to the drive, but once we get there the Cape is practically paradise, the less touristy parts at least, so it’ll be worth it.

I plan on working as much as I can while I’m there. Our new developer, Sherm, says the redesign will be finished by Friday. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Check it out at http://www.affordablesearc.com for the current site and http://beta.affordablesearch.com for the new incarnation.

I met with the vice president of property management at conifer realty today. A very nice, very tall gentleman. We had an hour long discussion that I think went very well. I’m hoping he buys some brochures on the site, but he is also interested in the idea of starting a magazine in upstate NY. This could work out very well for me personally but also a great way for the company to expand.  It really would be great if this web site could be a partial solution to the housing crunch in this country. If people are willing to move in order to find a decent place to live, then it really will work. I’m already seeing that with some of the cross country e-mails that go through the site.

I had a great phone discussion with Marianne the MS Advocate trainer last night. She is doing a great job to help me refine my presentation for the Biogen advocates program. She is a fascinating perso as well. Truly dedicated to her work and a wonderful coversationalist. And I’m not just saying that because she may eventually read this blog.

My fingers really are killing me. I’ll try writing more tonight. Now I have to make some phone calls.

Something is in the air

I feel something momentous is about to happen. I don’t know what it is, or whether it is good or bad, but there seems to be a stirring in the currents. Like a Stephen King book, something is coming. It may be as simple as another MS attack, or a huge sale, or some opportunity of which I am not yet aware. But something is coming.

Do you ever feel that way. The way my life has progressed has been completely unpredictable. 15 years ago I had just started at WGBH and I’m thinking, this is where I’m gonna stay. I’m retiring from this place. Great friends, good pay, great benefits. Who would leave. Then a diagnosis and the world turns upside down, inverts, falls apart, and who knows what this will lead to. Kids, houses, new friends made, old friends dying. My life has never been steady and sure. Always I am the feather in the wind from the old Kansas song. Blown about, but trying to secure some sort of goal. I have truly been the chameleon, blending in to one set of circumstances until I am no longer welcome and then finding a new reality. From green, to blue, to red and back to green.

I’m not saying nothing is steady and secure. Sor far my wife has been by my side through everything, failures and successes. My kids still love me. I still have friends, both near and far. I stay loyal to those friends and to my family.

But something is coming. It never goes long for me before some big sea change comes along and either disrupts or enhances everything in my life. I just found out one of my neighbors lost his job as a web developer. If anyone hears about anything in the Rochester area related to web programming, let me know. He’s a good guy and smart.  He has a wife and three great kids. He helps with the scouts, goes to his boys games, improves his house, he’s a good guy. Let me know if you hear of opportunities for him.

I may have something going on wit my left leg. I’ll let you know if it progresses. Meanwhile,

Talk to me…

Daily details

Everyone has those little annoying things that they have to accomplish just to get through life without getting into some kind of trouble. Today mine was getting my registration renewed. It was overdo and I had to make it to the Chili DMV without getting bagged by the cops. It’s OK, I made it. No arrests, no impounded vehicles, and the process of renewing was remarkabley fast and easy. Remember the days of waiting at the DMV all morning because there was no alternative. Now people renew by phone, on the internet, by mail. The DMV is saved for emergencies like mine.

I don’t know how I  let it expire, it was easy to renew the KIA over the internet. I just put the Subaru aside and forgot where I put it. So for the past week my wife refuses to drive that car for fear of being pulled over. I really don’t blame her, but I had to drive the kids around in the unregistered car for a while. My fault for delaying so that was OK.

Now I’m e-mailing for work. Building my e-mail database of property managers. Boring! But necessary. I have no MS stuff to report. The temperature has been pretty tolerable. Brought the kids to their soccer games yesterday. Alex’s team won, I’m pretty sure Zach’s lost, but they don’t really keep track at his age. I saw Jim Uebelacker at Zach’s game. He’s an old friend from High School and college. We said we should get together in the village, maybe Saturday. It was good seeing Jim. He was a guy I never ever had an issue with. Just a really good guy. It was a happy reconnection.

I know there was no flow to the above blog just random events. I’ll be more organized next time. Write to me and maybe we’ll talk issues. Is everyone keeping busy?

Backyard hijinks

Family friendly party yesterday. I was going to bring Jasmina to the YMCA to work out, but Chris needed help getting ready for the party. The party was for all the nurses Chris works with that were turning 40 this year. It was in the back yard. All the kids were in the pool. Lots of kids, mostly boys being boys. Lots of “Ok get out of the pool for five minutes, you can’t do that!” Nobody got hurt–too much.

I met some really interesting people. The first couple walks in and I bonded immediately with the guy, Don. He was career Navy who got crushed between a tug boat and a ship. Busted up his hips and lower vertibrae. He’s on disability now, but he is a funny guy, not depressed, cares for his son..and he doesn’t like Bush. Love That. We had a good conversation and he helped me set up up the badminton/volleyball net. Then Louie and Joanne showed up and here is another interesting guy. Not that the women weren’t interesting I just ddn’t talk to them much. Anyway Louie sells propane and studied theology in his youth. He’s more conservative obviously but I looked past that and he’s funny and thoughtful. We discussed all kinds of things from fuel to the Gospels.

This’ll be short, but I have to say yesterday was a stressfree, therapuetic day. Life is good. See that Theresa, sometimes I don’t complain.

blog away…

It’s just one of those days…

where nothing seems to happen. I’m in an echo chamber, talking to myself. None of my prospects return my calls,or they’re all away on vacation. How can I singlehandedly solve the housing crisis if no one returns my calls. I feel the same about this blog. I know one or two people seem to read it, and I’m grateful for that but in general, still talking to myself.

Actually I’m OK with that too. I might be a nervous wreck if people were actually reading me. Right now I can pretty much say whatever I want and I know nobody is going to look at it. Well a couple of people, I don’t mean to insult.

Blah, Blah, Blah.

My cousin Jasmina is in town from Chicago. She’s a single mother of a little boy named Phillip. Jasmina is probably taller than me, black hair and well put together. I know she’s my cousin but I think I can objectively say that. She also has a medical degree from a university in Macedonia. Shes 33 I think. Something like that. I’m saying this because any really tall dark doctors reading this might develop an interest.

Buddy’s whining. He probably has to go out. My fingers are really killing me from typing. I think it’s a combination of carpal tunnel and MS, boy am I lucky: a twofer.

Talk to me…

It’s hot…still hot…yup hot

I had a conversation with someone yesterday that helped me define myself, and there was no charge. Free psychoanalysis. Pretty cool. Anyway, for the longest time now I have thought of myself as someone who perseveres through life’s obstacles. I can’t walk straight and I get past it. My hands go numb and I ignore it. But in fact this new friend helped me to realize that I wasn’t just going through all this stuff, not coping but overcoming. I blend in to new realities. Like a chameleon. And then I remembered that I have always considered myself something of a chameleon.

Even when I was younger I had a facility with voices and did pretty good impressions of famous people, Jimmy Stewart, Jackie Mason, Inspector Cleuseau, etc. I acted in High School and college, becoming a new person as I took on a new character, from Henry II to The Pirate King. I take these obstacles, and blend into the new reality of my body. I adapt from working at the most powerful tv producing station in the country, to teaching English, to VP Sales for a website. I change and grow.

I’ll change again. Who wants to join me in opening an acting school on the west side of Boston. My experience teaching English and drama, acting, directing, why not? I bet we could even make some money. Who’s in?