A Short Walk to the Beginning of the Rest of My Life!

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Contents

Foreword...............................................................................................ixPreface................................................................................................xiiiAcknowledgment.........................................................................................xvChapter 1 A wake-up call...............................................................................1Chapter 2 A meager beginning but an amazing heritage...................................................5Chapter 3 Another slice of family history In defense of a dispassionate bureaucrat.....................9Chapter 4 Down on the farm.............................................................................11Chapter 5 The fledgling daredevil......................................................................17Chapter 6 No pork for me, thank-you very much..........................................................19Chapter 7 The school bully.............................................................................21Chapter 8 The first seeds of passion are sown..........................................................23Chapter 9 Brother spud.................................................................................29Chapter 10 The assassination of a sixth-graders President..............................................31Chapter 11 The perfect play............................................................................33Chapter 12 My obsession with cars......................................................................37Chapter 13 Networking, the beginning of my career......................................................41Chapter 14 College.....................................................................................43Chapter 15 Physical Education at 4,000 feet............................................................47Chapter 16 Two minutes from eternity...................................................................51Chapter 17 Solo flight beneath the heavens.............................................................57Chapter 18 Beginnings of my semiprofessional music career..............................................67Chapter 19 My cowboy N' days with Stoney and Napoleon..................................................71Chapter 20 My time as a mixologist.....................................................................75Chapter 21 Clearing the initial barriers...............................................................79Chapter 22 Chezz-it, it's the rent-a-cop...............................................................87Chapter 23 The Galloway house..........................................................................91Chapter 24 Dirt bike N' the fox and the hound..........................................................95Chapter 25 An afternoon with a country music icon......................................................99Chapter 26 Two doors down yet worlds apart.............................................................105Chapter 27 Unprecedented...............................................................................111Chapter 28 A wrong turn, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons......................................115Chapter 29 Just another day at the office, a true heroic act...........................................119Chapter 30 A firefighter's wife........................................................................121Chapter 31 Oops!.......................................................................................125Chapter 32 From the humorous to the horrific...........................................................127Chapter 33 Ouch!.......................................................................................139Chapter 34 The silent hazards of the job...............................................................143Chapter 35 A lifetime of missed opportunities..........................................................147Chapter 36 A family's lethal defective gene............................................................153Chapter 37 Another milestone in my career..............................................................155Chapter 38 Errors in judgment and a lack of leadership.................................................157Chapter 39 Structural engineering 101 for firefighters.................................................159Chapter 40 Call the golf course get a doctor...........................................................163Chapter 41 The System # % $ + =?? ?....................................................................169Chapter 42 Be Prepared.................................................................................173Chapter 43 The second seed of passion sprouts..........................................................175Chapter 44 The deer will be looking?...................................................................179Chapter 45 The inheritance of a Fire Chief.............................................................181Chapter 46 Behind the closed door of the inner-sanctum.................................................183Chapter 47 A rude awakening............................................................................189Chapter 48 A true and lasting friendship...............................................................191Chapter 49 The firefighting bug bites..................................................................193Chapter 50 The apropos firefighter's birthday celebration..............................................199Chapter 51 Life after MS...............................................................................203Chapter 52 A father's love.............................................................................205Chapter 53 A time of reflection........................................................................207Family Photo Gallery...................................................................................209Author's Curriculum Vitae..............................................................................221Epilogue...............................................................................................223

Chapter One

It was a beautiful morning in mid-July of 1992. At the time, I had a private office on the first floor of city hall. A bank of windows faced the street where I always parked my fire chief staff car.

I had just finished wrapping-up a meeting with the on-duty fire captain and I was anxious to tackle my routinely hectic schedule.

After exchanging salutations, Captain Wilson exited my office and began the two-block trek back to the fire station.

I reached for my briefcase I needed to take with me for an important scheduled meeting away from city hall, but I did not have the strength to grasp the handle to pick it up.

Suddenly, I was overcome with flu type symptoms. In an instant, I became weak and nauseous. Within seconds, I was lightheaded; the slightest movement of my head to the right or the left caused me to have the worst case of vertigo than I had ever experienced.

It literally took close to 20-minutes to shuffle my feet the 25-feet to reach my car.

By the time I made the 10-minute drive to my residence, my symptoms had worsened drastically. I was sweating profusely; my suit...