There is nothing like a brush with death to make you realize how much you enjoy living.

When I was younger, I thought that I was immortal and took a lot stupid chances. The kinds of situations where you know that one of the possible outcomes could leave you as an unidentifiable corpse. There have been more than a few times where I could have been killed, but wasn’t and walked, or crawled, away with only a few scars or broken bones. The possibility of dying while being stupid never even entered into the equation. It wasn’t until I lost my dad that I finally figured out that I wasn’t immortal.

A few days after Christmas, I was diagnosed with colon cancer. I am a year younger than my dad was, when he was diagnosed. Colon cancer has been prevalent in my family, hanving taken my dad, two of his sisters and older brother my grandmother, cousins and my mother, I knew that it would, probably, eventually knock on my door, too. Since my dad, I have watched as cancer took other family members and several close friends. Watching, knowing what is coming and that I could do nothing to stop it scared the living shit out of me and I would withdraw, unable to function. My own diagnosis has xxxxxxxxxx me to face it. In a way, it was a relief, because there is reason to be afraid of it anymore. I may not be immortal, but I can beat this shit. It might still get me, in the end, but I’m not going down without a fight.

Since the first of 2020, I have had surgery to remove about a foot of my colon, lost enough blood to cause a heart attack, which requiried having a couple of stents installed, and am now enduring chemotherapy. Make no mistake, this is an endurance test to see if I am strong enough survive the cancer and the treatment, before the chemicals or the disease gets me.

I feel better than I have in a long time. I guess you could say that my game is going into extra innings, but, there is still too much baseball yet to be played before even thinking about taking my bat and going home.


My beat up body

Play along if you’d like!

Broken Bones - Want a list?
Shot a gun - Yes
Driven 100 mph - Oh, yeah....got caught, too
Ridden in a helicopter - No
Gone zip lining - Tried to build one as a kid
Been to an NFL game - No
Been to Canada - Was across the river from it
Visited Florida - Yes
Visited Mexico - Yes
Visited Vegas- Only the airport
Eat alone at a restaurant - Yes
Ability to read music - Yes, but haven't in years
Ridden a motorcycle - Yes
Ridden a horse – Yes, but I prefer the motorcycle
Stayed in a hospital – Yes
Donated blood - Not allowed
Slept outside – Yes
Driven a stick shift - Yes
Ridden in an 18 wheeler - Nope
Ridden in a police car - Unfortunately....yes
Driven a boat - Yes
Eaten Escargot - YUCK!!
Been on a cruise - Yes
Run out of gas - Yes
Eaten Sushi - Eewwoo...that's about as bad as snails....
Seen a ghost/spirit - Not sure
Been to London - Yes
Been to Central America - No
Been to Alaska - No
Been to Hawaii - No
Seen a UFO- No
Been to Europe - No
Been to San Francisco - Yes
Been to NYC - Flew over it once (on the way to London)
Been to Washington DC - Yes
Been snow skiing - Yes
Been Ice skating - Yes

Cut and paste to your blog, change the answers and post.

Eighteen random facts for the new year. Let’s get to know each other! I can't wait to read yours!

1. Do you make your bed everyday? Nope, I'd only have mess it up again

2. What's your favorite number? 6 (Stan Musial's number)

3. What is your dream job? One where I don't have to do anything, or do whatever I want, and be paid 7 figures

4. If you could, would you go back to school? I can, but don't want to.

5. Can you parallel park? Yes

6. Name a job you had which people would be shocked to know you had. I used to DJ while I was in college

7. Do you think aliens are real? Are we talking illegal or extra-terrestrial?

8. Can you drive a stick shift? Yes

9. What is your guilty pleasure? NN

10. What's your dream car? 1967 or 68 Camaro convertible, 327, 4 speed

11. Do you talk to yourself? If it isn't me talking to myself, then who is it?

12. Do you like doing puzzles? Yes

13. Favorite music? Rock & Roll

14. Coffee or tea? Yuck!

15. Do you hit the snooze button? Nah, I just sleep through it

16. Love or money? I love money

17. Pets? 2 dogs (Keeshonds)

18. First thing you remember you wanted to be growing up? A musician

Play along ... copy and paste this onto your wall, change my answers to yours, and let your friends learn a little about you.

Taking my son back to college is an all day affair. The school is a four hour drive one way. Being alone on the return trip, I decided that it would be fun to drive home half naked. I stopped to buy gasoline and, when I got back in the car, I removed my pants and underwear, started the car and took off up thr highway.

Even though it was after dark, it was fun passing people and big rig trucks, sitting there with no pants. About halfway, I went through a drive thru ice cream place, sat ten minutes in line before getting to the window. The girl just smiled and handed me a milkshake. If she saw anything out of the ordinary, she didn't let on.

The whole drive was kind of fun. I'll have to try it again sometime.

I've been so horny that I can't stand it. Looking the gallery photos, here at NN is, probably, contributing quite a lot to it, too. There are so many beautiful women that post photos here, that I can hardly stay away.

It's now been 5 years since my wife decided to give up sex, so I don't expect any help there. I'm getting carpal tunel, in both wrists, from having to take of myself.

I've been thinking a lot about getting some body piercings, which goes along with the tattoos I've been thinking about, as well. I don't know why, exactly. Maybe it suits my recent need to change/re-invent myself, to satisfy my need to try new and different things.

The big question is: what should I have pierced?

Until a few days ago, I never thought that I would ever have the nerve to post a nude photo of myself on a web site. I always thought that there must be something wrong with anyone who would post a naked photo of themselves on a web site. I would be thinking that the person’s motivation was excessive narcicissm, or just a way to get a little attention. After viewing a ton of photos on NN of people enjoying themselves, and a couple of PM’s with some other users, I’ve had to rethink all that.

After thinking long and hard about it (no pun intended), it turns out, there is nothing wrong with anyone who posts the odd photo, or shares stories of their sexual exploits. I’ll show you mine, if you’ll show me yours is about as natural behavior as there is. We all did it as kids, so what’s the big deal if we do it as adults? As adults, a little show and tell is, probably, far more interesting now than when we were kids. As far back as I can remember, the gang of idiots that I run with has always swapped fuck stories. Really, there is no difference between sharing a story on the web or telling it to your buddies over beers. To think sharing is wrong just because it’s on the web is a bit hypocritical.

So where did these prudish ideas come from?

In part, I never thought that anyone (except, maybe, me) would ever want to see a photo of my naked ass (and that might still be the case). Even though I’ve been, and still am, athletic all my life, I’ve never considered myself to have the perfect physique. In high school and college, I got used to there always being someone in the shower and quit thinking about it. For the most part, I’m comfortable with my body. Like most people, I’m more than a little self conscious about being naked in front of other people who are not. Which about the same as being the only one fully clothed in a room full of naked people.

Another part of it is that I’ve never really had any of the kinds of exploits that I would be interesting to tell. Even now, when all the guys get together, I listen more than I tell. After those get-togethers, I always feel like I’ve been missing out on the wild times. Or, maybe everyone else is just better at telling the stories than I am.

Ever since I’ve know her, my wife has always been fairly prudish. I think that, over the years, some of that may have rubbed off. Even now, she covers up if I happen to wander in while she’s changing. I can’t remember the last time I saw her naked. I can count, on one hand, the number of times that we’ve had sex in the daylight.

This week, for the first time ever, I posted photos of myself, here on NN. Now that I’ve, actually, posted them, I feel somewhat liberated from those stuffy ideas. After seeing myself, in all my glory, there still isn’t much to see or write about, but, it’s a start. Maybe NN is becoming my way of rebelling a little.

I've never written a blog before. Do you think that anyone will notice this one?