About Zipper

Well, a long time ago in a faraway place I used to wrestle and play football. I got a ride to MIT and decided I wanted to be a car mechanic, not an engineer. I decided to join the Marines. In boot camp, I had the offer to go to Annapolis. Again I turned down higher education.

I joined to work in avionics. After sending me to school for a year I got transferred to MCAS Cherry Point. COOL! I get to work on jets. I checked in and got ready to go to work and found out I didn't get to work on jets, I got to be a telephone man! Talk about disappointed!

Later, as the years went by, I had back surgery. The doc said it should last about 10 years before I needed another one. I was like, okay, let's do it!

About 6 months later my legs were working GREAT! We decided to go on an extended road trip. We live in Texas and we drove north until interstate 35 ended. From there we went everywhere. This was a couple of years after the show Deadwood ended so we had to stop there. As long as we were close and it was August we went to Sturgis, Mt Rushmore, Wall Drug, we went to see the buffalo, Niagra Falls, etc.

On the way home we were in Pennsylvania. I went to get out of the van and my legs stopped working. I was in a great deal of pain. Jeanne drove us home in record time and I was in surgery two days later. That was surgery number 2.

We're not going to talk about my neck (9 surgeries) today, just my back. So far they've had seven tries to fix my back, two neurostimulators, and PT forever. PT is great. I feel better for a few hours and we all get along. There are lots of old military people on Friday and we all talk about what we used to do.

So, before all this crap I had a motorcycle. My left leg no longer is strong enough to hold it up. The greatest person I know decided to get me a motorscooter. I can hold that up as long as I take short trips and it's almost like a real motorcycle. I can honestly say that when I'm in the wind there is no pain. Sadly, I need Jeanne to help me get back in the house.

We went shopping the other day and took an extended ride on some Can-Am three-wheelers and had a blast! Sure, I know it's not advised but we're probably going to get one anyway.

So that's me.

Hi everyone! Now you know the rest of the story.