This day...1983...a Wednesday...it was cloudy...

I abruptly moved into my grandmother's vacant house. Altered my life in endless ways for years to come. And I was recently thinking how my life would be totally different now if...she hadn't died. Isn't that odd? If she were still alive today, God KNOWS where I would have grown up...what friends I'd have...EVERYTHING. Most bizarre to ponder. It's almost like, do I THANK her for dying? Or curse her? Neither, of course. Sounds twisted. She died. Period. That's life. I guess it's funny to wonder about the could've beens, but ultimately pointless. I DO know her death was a seminal event in my life. But 1983...that was a DAMN good summer. Classic. The summer I compare all others to...and many others have also been great. '83 was the summer of kick-the-can, manhunt, EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE, SHE WORKS HARD FOR THE MONEY, blasting my dad's transistor radio while I sat on his car, seeing WARGAMES in Toms River, breaking my wrist on an August evening while rollerskating, and so much more. All of that from remembering what happened 23 years ago today...