My working history reads like something out of the Great Depression. I started working at the age of 9, throwing 400 papers a day in Las Vegas. Up at 1am, I ate at the casinos, then did the papers and went to school - and still managed to pull straight A's.
All through school, one way or the other, I had to work. My mother was always sick. She had one operation after another, 13 in all by the time I graduated High School. And a few more afterwards.
Looking back now, I see I was worn out by 9th grade. I just blew off school that year. I roamed the desert with my dog. All totalled, I went to school 10 days out of the year.
For God only knows what reasons, my mother had us constantly moving. I'd lived on both coasts and in 23 states by the age of 14.
For the three remaining years of high school, I tried to be a part of normal school activities. There just wasn't enough time or enough of me. If I didn't work, the bills didn't get paid. Most kids could work and save for a car or dates, trips, or whatever. I couldn't. My mother had a gambling habit. Nearly everything I made went into the house.
The USArmy gave me the best job I'd ever had. Food, clothing, and a place to sleep, and something to do most days. On top of that, they taught me a lot of stuff that I didn't think I could learn myself like Russian and electronics. And they sent me across the world.
And I got in shape. I got down to 195 lbs at one point. With my build and genetics, that meant hardly eating and running miles on miles every day. I did it. I was young and strong.
After the Army, I tried living the life of a disco dancer. I could spin an kick, split, and rise with anyone. And that was before Travolta made is a national obsession.
Then came the seizures.
For 6-7 years, I barely survived. I lost jobs, then found jobs. I could do almost anything - until a few seizures ripped my life out from under me.
No one could figure out why I was having seizures. They started less than a year after I left the service. And they remain a part of my life even now, over 30 years later.
The seizures changed my life too young. Unable to roam the bars looking for hot bands and women, I found I loved to read and study. I read, and read, anything - except novels and fiction. I read the heavy stuff: history, science, economics, psychology, technology, etc.
In fact, I read tech books these days for relaxation.
Some of it was because I wanted to be able to make a living when I got better (if that ever came.) Some of it was because I had missed out on college, and wanted to know what others were learning there.
I became a programmer because that was a job where I could do all of it. I could learn a business, then make a positive contribution to it. I became a systems analyst.
The seizures have abated. They only hit me now when I let myself become too stressed.
Dangerous things. I've had one in the deep end of a pool. If it weren't for the lifeguards, I'd be dead. When I was up hiking, I often wondered what would happen to me if I had one on a trail somewhere; or maybe just somewhere alone in the woods. Would I just freeze to death? I wonder what a bear would think of someone in a gran mal seizure?
Not that any of these worries kept me from hiking. I love the mountains too much.
The last few years have been the worst though.
I had to travel halfway around the world for my hip to give out. I only noticed when my leg swelled up and turned blue. The main vein in the leg wasn't flowing because the hip had closed it off.
The doctors treated the blood clot to save my life. But they missed the real reason, the deteriorating hip, for a couple more months.
For two years, I couldn't sit, stand, or even lie down for more than a half hour. The cartilage was gone from one hip. By the time I got it fixed, the pain of surgery was meaningless.
Two chunks of titanium replace the joint now. It doesn't work perfectly. I'd twisted my body for over 20 years as the cartilage wore out. That sort of thing just doesn't instantly repair itself.
The twisting had one knee and most of my back rubbing bone on bone. After the surgery, I had to learn to walk again. That took care of the knee, but my back has yet to figure out how things are supposed to be.
After a couple more years in Australia, I decided to go home.
I made it to Hawaii. One software miracle, and I got a golden staph infection. Two of them, in fact, along with a dozen other bacteria formed an absess on my side. The doctors rushed me into surgery, then I got to spend 33 days in an Army hospital. They treated me as if I had a gunshot wound.
With a still open wound, I made my way to the airport and returned to Australia. And here I am, wondering every day if I'll ever see the mountains of California again.
These days I work as a software trainer and web developer. The only thing I can't do really well is the design stuff. But I can hook up the databases, put them out to the Web in either Open Source or .NET, and tie it all together - sometimes in three languages.
I've got to admit, getting older just pisses me off.
I don't like the idea that I can't just take off on a 5 mile walk, much less a run. Sometimes just walking down to breakfast is a long way.
I don't like very much that I spent a few hours out dancing and my guts ache. Working out is just not what it used to be. I used to enjoy soaking my shirt in aerobics classes and the weight room. Now I'm lucky to just break a sweat.
Those years as nearly an invalid, then the muscle-eating virus in Hawaii, just took a lot of the muscle mass.
It's still there, of course. Large arms and thick legs. As long as I don't do too much, they work almost like they used to. But the days of rolling 6 ft rounds of timber onto splitters are gone.
And so I work for myself. Fewer hours at much better pay. I don't know if I'll ever be able to take a "regular" job again. I need time to myself too often.
Mentally, I suppose I'm more a Gen-Xer than a baby boomer. Acquaintences are often shocked to hear my age. They say I sound too young.
I love the Internet. I still think technology can save the world. I still want to be a part of that madness, if I can. I'm dismayed at the attitude of so many who are afraid of the Net.
