Circle of Life

Now you’re probably wondering why in the world I would share this history lesson with you, what could this possibly have to do with me? Really it has nothing to do with me directly. It just so happens that I was born exactly 33 years later at the exact same time, 8:15 AM California time.

After my brother Robert was born in 1968, my mom was told she wouldn’t have any more children. There were numerous reasons for this, but mostly just the fact that she was getting older. So you can imagine the shock 10 years later when she was told by her doctor that she was pregnant? Little did she know that this was only the first of several “bombs” that were going to be dropped on her in the next few years.

Nine months later on August 6, 1978 at Fremont Hospital in Marysville, California, I had just made my dramatic entrance into the world. My mother was laying there on that cold delivery bed when she heard the doctor say something that let her know her new baby boy was more special then she had already thought.

“Your son is albino, he will be totally blind by the time he’s 16. Make an appointment with me on Monday.”

Now, I ask you, why would the doctor say I would be totally blind by the time I was 16 when no know cases of an albino “naturally” going blind existed at this time, or even now for that matter? Well, it was probably due to the fact that no one really knows that much about Albinism. Now, I could sit here and give you a long medical definition to what Albinism is, but I’ll leave that up to the folks at Wikipedia.

For the record, I CAN see, but not very well. My vision is 20/480. Which means that what a person with “normal” vision can see from 480 yards away, I have to be 20 yards away from to see. This is a really bad description of my vision because there are a lot of factors that can improve or worsen my eyesight. Sunlight, wattage of light bulbs, even light bulb type, fluorescent for example, which I love by the way.

My sworn nemesis is the sun, we battle on a ‘daily’ basis. Unfortunately the sun’s powers greatly exceed that of my own. I am forced more often than not to don my protective armor. I have numerous defenses. For example, my Optical Reflection Lenses (sunglasses), my powerful Body Shield made of a thin layer of fat polymers. (UV 45 sun block) and of course I must have my Power Visor (baseball hat). If you haven’t guessed, I am a major geek, NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH NERD!!!

The point is UV rays are extremely dangerous to albinos, I burn very easily, the light hurts my eyes, and my skin is highly susceptible to skin cancer. This is probably why I prefer the night life. I have a very high light perception. This means I see in the dark better than most, even with my vision loss. My grandmother used to call me “moon-eyed child”. Although I have tried, I am unable to find any other reference to this on the great World Wide Internet. Meaning I use the moon’s light like most use the sun’s light.

My first few years were pretty uneventful; probably a good thing considering what was still yet to come.

1. A Small History Lesson	2. Congratulations It’s A Freak
3. The First Five Years	4. It All Goes Up In Flames
5. School Daze	6. Say What?
7. A New Hope	8. Becoming A Sophisticated Redneck
9. A New Beginning – Literally	10. Back Into the Fray
11. They Like Me, They Really Like Me	12. 10011001
13. Let the Music Heal Your Soul	14. Taking My Sister to the Prom
15. My First Love, My First Broken Heart	16. From Zero to Hero
17. Livin’ On a Prayer	18. Moving On
19. Going Full Circle	20. The Rockford Files
21. Faith of the Heart	22. Partner, Friend, Lover, Wife
23. Turns Out She Was Right	24. A One-Legged Bear
25. Another Victim of the Game	26. Payin’ Bills with my Skills
27. A New Revell-ation	28. A New Page, A New Day
29. R We There Yet?