Surreal doesn't begin to describe my life. I'll let you be the judge. I promise you that I'll tell as much of the story as I can recall and endevor to be honest when reflecting on my memories. Much of what I will say here will be random at first, but if you stay with me the pieces will fall into place.

My father passed away when I was just 9 year old, that was in spring of 1968. I didn't cry, I didn't know what for. My father was an alcholic and drank himself into his early grave (two weeks shy of his 39th birthday I believe). Even with doctors telling him he could live a long life if he quit drink, the addication was bigger than he was. My mom gave her best effort at rasing the four kids she had. Yes, four of us, Robin, Dan, Tim (me) and Melanie. Robin is three years older than me, Dan is 18 months, Melanie is four years younger than me. I always looked up to Robin, she was the gentle one, with an easy way about her that made her a safe place to find comfort when mom was unavailable. Dan, my older brother was always a leader type. That doesn't mean he had a crew to lead, he had me. Melanie was the last, she replaced me at the bottom of the heap, only the gap for her regarding age was nearly insurmountable as a child. It's been theorized that I must have been jealous of my younger sister but I really don't recall it that way. As I recall, the complaints I had were shared by my two older sibliings. Perhaps I was a puppet, an impressionable youngster without any real opinions so why not embrass those of my older sister and brother. That would be a nice scape goat wouldn't it? Truth is I was never afraid to express my point of view as a child. I was a classic fire sign, bold, opinionated and competitive. I would not be bested by my younger sister, and my older brother was alway in my sights on the baseball diamond, or football field. The other thing about me as a child (I'm still this way) is that I always wanted to be good enough to be 'chosen'. Line the boys up for choosing sides in basketball and I wanted to be the first or second chosen. If a cute girl came across my path I wanted her to pick me as her favorite boy.

I'm tired now, I'll write more later.