I’ve been “Tagged…”

…by both Michael Kruse and Scot McKnight.

When you’ve been tagged, you’re required to answer the questions posed to you. This tag requires me to say five personal things about themselves that my readers may not know.

1. My wife Linda and I went to the same High School (she was a year behind me). Whereas she was valedictorian of her class, I was…ummmm…not. We hung around in different circles, and thus did not know each other. We met seven years after high school at church. She was leading the single womens’ Bible study and I was leading the single mens’ Bible study.

2. While Linda was valedictorian of her class; I was the class clown of mine (I didn’t actually win the official title, I was first runner-up). Like I said, we hung around in different circles.

3. I used to have flaming red hair in my youth – and lots of it. Most of my readers wouldn’t know this, since I…don’t have lots of any hair now. My son is a spitting image of his dad at his age. Pray that he can keep that beautiful hair!

4. From the age of five to the age of thirteen, I was in-an-out of the Cleveland Clinic hospital for kidney reconstructive surgeries. I averaged a surgery each year of my youth to repair congenital defects. Interesting that last year I had my aorta surgery at this same hospital. It brought back many memories.

5. Now that I’ve had surgery to replace my aortic valve with a mechanical one, I can never sneak up on you and I can never play poker. With every heart-beat, I click. It’s like wearing a bad watch—click, click, click. It’s hard to fall asleep sometimes, when, in a quiet room, all I hear is the click, click, click of my own heart (You're not supposed to notice when you breath or when your heart beats!) Linda says she has trouble falling asleep too, because she listens to it and wonders, “Why is his heart beating at that rate? Did I hear him miss a beat?” Its very odd. I think the surgeon accidentally dropped his watch in my chest and won’t admit it.