Send Me Your Money

Dear reader,
I will be taking the next few days off from ranting to participate in the MS 150 charity bicycle ride in northern Idaho. I will be back online Monday Sept. 12th with more rantings.

As many things as I bitch about, I am happy for the fact that I have my health and that most of my physical issues are self inflicted. I look toward people who continue to live their lives to the fullest despite their "disabilities" or "limitations."

I  volunteer my time with great organizations such as the Outdoors For All foundation and the Seattle Slam quad rugby team. Both are great outfits with very inspiring messages for those of us who have full physical and mental capabilities, but find reasons to not live out our lives to the fullest.

I'm a strong believer in volunteering your time and not just throwing money at something to make yourself feel like you've done something. Anyone, including my broke ass, can donate a few bucks here and there. But it takes time, commitment and some emotional involvement to really make a difference in the world. You never understand a problem without really getting involved in it.

I choose to volunteer with these particular organizations because, as a person who enjoys activities that can potentially paralyze me, I like to know what to expect when my day of reckoning comes.

But the Multiple Sclerosis foundation is something a bit more to me.

A close family friend was diagnosed with MS when I was just a kid. I didn't know what it was or what it meant at the time. All I knew was that this once healthy and vibrant woman began to have issues with simple things like climbing a set of stairs. She was always tired. Then one day she began to use a cane to help her walk. Then it was a walker. Like an old lady.

But she was only in her late 30's or early 40's.

This scared me. The fact that nobody knew what MS really was or what had caused it really fucked with my head.
Remember that this was the late 1980's and AIDS was the big, new, scary disease. For all I knew, MS and AIDS were the same thing!


A few years ago, I found out that a friend of mine from college has been living with MS for about a decade now. So the way I see it, the least I can do is help raise money for MS research. A day or two suffering on a bicycle is nothing compared to what these two tough ladies have to endure every day.

The difference is that, I suffer for one weekend a year. These two live with this disease every day of their lives.

Multiple Sclerosis is a terrible disease that can and will cause loss of movement and paralysis, even blindness.
It's cause is unknown. It affects all kinds of people in all walks of life. No two cases are exactly alike.
The Pacific Northwest, and Washington State in particular, has the highest known MS rate of anywhere in the U.S.A.

Multiple Sclerosis could hit you or me at any time. I hope it doesn't. But it could....

To learn more about MS, please visit the National MS Society.

Please visit this site to donate to my fundraising and cycling team.

See you next week!