Blogging My Life

 I started this blog in 2004 mostly as an outlet for my political rants but also just to talk about my life. But, as so often happens, life got busy and complicated and painful and I only wrote in fits and starts for several years. Frankly I'm surprised Google/Blogger didn't just delete it so someone else could have the title 'Blogging My Life.' But they didn't and I'm glad because now that I'm disabled and have some time on my hands, I've discovered that writing a journal has helped me work out in my mind some of the issues I deal with. I have Ankylosing's Spondylitis, which is an autoimmune disease that causes fusing of the spine and other joints as well as intensely painful inflammation elsewhere in the body. And I have peripheral neuropathy in my right leg as a result of a parachuting accident while in the army. I'm constantly in a good deal of pain and this chronic pain has caused me to lose many things: an active lifestyle, job, wife, among...

   I was walking home from the library this evening, the uneven city sidewalk pavement always gives me trouble. When you walk with a cane you’re frequently looking down to make sure you don’t fall. It makes me feel older than I am, but I’ve felt that way for a long time.  The shadows of the bare trees grew longer as the sun sank lower behind buildings and the air got colder, but the sky was still clear blue. The city where I live has some very nice parks and I stopped to watch a man who was playing fetch with his dog. I don’t know the breed, medium size with black and white markings.  I’ve always been a ‘dog person.’ My ex-wife and I were drawn to the boxer breed and during the course of our time together we had two. Sophie, who was Jessica’s dog, developed hip dysplasia and had to be put down when she was about eleven years old. We mourned like we had lost a child, and in a way we had. After a few years we got Maggie as a puppy and she was definitely my dog. “A boy ...

I’m writing this in order to work out why the film, Let the Right One In, has affected me so much. I kinda/sorta watched it a few years ago, but not really. I didn’t really pay attention to it, I think I may have been put off by the subtitles. But I watched it a few nights ago, really watched it, and was, quite literally, moved to tears. I was so affected I read everything I could find about the movie on Wikipedia, ordered the book on Amazon, and then watched the American remake, Let Me In, on the same night. I was up until the early morning hours just thinking about it. I watched it again for a second time in three nights, and, again, I was up till the wee hours just thinking about it. I had not experienced such feelings from a movie in a very long time. What is it about this story that so touched me that I’m completely obsessed with it? I think it's that the movie, and then the book, (that’s the order I experienced) is just such a wonderfully told love story. Initially, the sto...