There's a meaning behind the title 'Out of the Blue Too' that I've assigned to my Blog. Here's the story...
My main goal is to make my Blog meaningful. Meaningful to my family, friends, and fellow ALS PALS. With that in mind, I thought of my Dad. You see in November of 1995, my dad suffered a brain stem stroke. He was paralyzed from the nose down. We were asked by the doctor's if we wanted to keep Dad alive. We told them it was not our decision, it was Dad’s. My Dad was able to communicate by blinking with his eyes. “Yes” was one blink, “no” was two. So we asked him if he wanted to live. You could tell by his reaction the answer was "Hell Yes". It was almost like he wanted to know why we were asking such a stupid question in the first place. To be honest, I admired his determination yet at the same time I didn't understand why a person would want to live in such a horrible state. But my Dad was very intelligent. He knew the brain could teach itself how to make the body function again. After a ton of physical therapy, Dad regained the use of one arm and was able to drive his power wheelchair and feed himself. He totally amazed us all.
This brings me to the topic for today’s Blog posting. My Dad learned to use a computer and was able to type using one finger. It wasn’t long before my Dad started writing articles for a local magazine. He had his own column. His column title was “Out of the Blue”. In the fall of 1996 he wrote his first article. He describes the shock of surviving the worst type of stoke known to man.
My Dad died in December of 2000 due to reasons unrelated to his stroke. I decided to name my Blog in memory of him and the strange fact the I’m facing the same challenges he faced not long ago.
Lastly, up until a month ago I had no idea what the Blog was, so before I created this Blog, I read a few hundred on Blogger.com. My first reaction was one of amazement. What surprised me the most was how much people had to say about nothing. It made me wonder what these people did all day. I guess people just love to write about themselves and don't mind sharing their personal lives with the world. I wonder if loneliness is a factor. I found many examples of "Dear Diary". Of course there were the ones from other countries that I couldn't the read at all. But I basically came away with the idea that a Blog can be anything that you want it to be. I decided to make mine meaningful.
