In my geeky computer history, I owned an Amiga 500. My first experience with a point and click user interface for a computer was GEOS on a Commodore 64. The Amiga was light years ahead of GEOS, and it seemed light years ahead of all other computers I had used then. Unfortunately, the time I had with my Amiga 500 was very short. When the computer died a strange death, I’m not sure why it never dawned on me that it may have been a warranty repair. So, instead of trying to get a repair, I moved on—completely frustrated.

During the time that I had my Amiga 500, I grew attached to a few select games. One of them, Sword of Sodan, holds a special place in my memories as having the silliest sounds effects ever. My friend Jeremy Kaye and I used to play this game often, and we would laugh continuously at the enemy death sounds in level 4. Looking at the game today, it seems incredibly lame, but it was pretty amazing for a home computer in 1989.

Many strange things have happened to me during my 35 years. One particular strange happening took place when I was still driving a bicycle as my main mode of transportation.

In those days, I pedaled all around Kokomo with my friend Jeremy Kaye. We mostly liked looking at CDs, so our destinations would usually be the music stores in Markland Mall and Kokomo Mall or a Karma store. However, on this occasion, we headed to Kmart.

At that time, a Kmart store was directly east of Markland Mall. We would need to cross US 31, which is a four lane highway through Kokomo. For a reason that I have forgotten, we did not cross the highway at an intersection that day. Instead, we crossed about a quarter mile south of the nearest intersection.

Jeremy crossed first, and made it to the opposite side of the highway with his bike in good time. I was a bit slower crossing to the median due to traffic, but I was not nearly as slow as I was crossing from the median to the other side of the highway due to a completely different reason.

A single candy bar does not, usually, cause people bodily harm. However, if the candy bar is traveling inside an automobile, tossed out of a window and carefully plotted to impact with a “tender place,” it is now a weapon—avoid impact if possible. Unfortunately, I speak from experience.

When I arrived at the median, I quickly lifted my bike to the other side. I then climbed over the median and stood up. It seemed to come out of nowhere. I doubled over immediately. Jeremy, who was still standing on the other side of the highway had not a clue what had happened to me.

I do not remember how long it took me to gain my composure, and I do not remember anything that happened after impact that day, except for Jeremy laughing.

Jackson & Shadow’s House/Kokomo, IN

Neesie and I did not intend to make a run here to Kokomo yesterday. In fact, most normal people would have stayed home given the weather conditions. The weather reports of six inches couldn’t have been far off. It is piled up outside again!

Why did we drive 50 miles through all this powder? We came up to see Alan Kaye and Tilt-A-Wurl at Thirsty’s. Alan’s take on parents, rap music, sex and drugs made for a funny evening. Very few people have not experienced the mom transforming into Godzilla while asking for something at a department store. Especially after stead fast rules had been set up!

It was nice to see Alan do stand up again. Last night was the first time I’d seen him do it since 1991!

Jeremy and Tabi were there as well. Jeremy is very supportive of his father’s endeavors. I would imagine that Jeremy has heard his dad’s material a million times, yet he laughed as if it were the first time last night. Their sense of humor is so similar it’s scary!