A bad sign that the 8:39 morning express to San Francisco is running late.  This rarely happens on Caltrain.  Save for the occasional suicide, locals hurling themselves upon the tracks in frightening numbers...a sign of the times, one cannot say.  The times one can count on being of the daily schedule variety.  I have an appointment.  I need to see a woman about my book.  Yes, there is one.  I have seen the cover.  I have seen the beautifully designed pages.  Read more [...]

As dreams go, it is so simple, so utterly uneventful, that its resonance baffles me over the ensuing day.  Which is a diminished day, it turns out, for the dream that awakens me at 2:30 in the morning proves final.  It is the last dream of the night.  The end of night, or more precisely, of sleep.  I am terrified into consciousness.  And no, that is not accurate either.  I am terrified into sleeplessness.  And why?Only a few years ago I rode an adult tricycle around Read more [...]

The rockets' red glare...well, they have a way of making me glare...and the bombs bursting in air...are clearly not the smart variety. And with America pounding so vociferously on its relics, making craven images of its founding documents, it is easy to be cynical. Not to mention blasé. Although both stances run into serious competition within the life of a disabled person. For as soon as one is exerting effort, which is most of the time, things become real. Such as the schlep to the Campbell Heritage Read more [...]

At 4:30 AM my archenemy reasserts control of first my arch, then the spastic foot, then my sleep. The latter has been dense, action-packed somehow, as though the body knew it was heading for this juncture - the stinging and the jerking and the not sleeping. Still, I hang in there for another 2 1/2 hours, finally getting up to make tea and get on with the helpless day. The latter meaning that I do not have help this particular morning. Jane is working. Menchu is exhausted. And all I have to do is Read more [...]

I am deluged with flyers and mailers, not to mention wheelchairing past lawns staked out with more cardboard election signs than tombstones in a graveyard.  Such is the bitterly fought election over the officers of the Menlo Park Fire Board.  The only point being that I know all this.  So when I roll in the door at 7:45 this evening only to be greeted from a call from Steve from the Menlo Park Firefighters...there is every reason to be gracious.  Although in the moment graciousness Read more [...]

The arch of your foot may not seem like a thing to obsess over, certainly nothing to keep you awake at night. Yet this is what is happening. Where does this story begin? Is it even a story? The boring details amounting to nothing more than the fact that I have a foot, that it swells and stings. This pain occurs in the foot's arch, triggering spastic muscle activity in the area. Which makes the foot twist or jerk, and this is a good thing. Paralyzed people need all the movement they can get. A jerking Read more [...]