introductory

the summer of 1980 was unbearably hot.

it was in dallas, texas anyways.  i, of course, accept that on the authority of trusted witnesses, mostly on account of i wasn't even around for about half of it.  plus i didn't develop a long-term memory until sometime in 1984.  august 3 was the exact date and i tried looking up stuff that happened that particular day and it seems like, in 1980 anyways, there really wasn't just a whole lot going on.  it turns out that i do share a birthday (day and year) with people named dominick moore (a hockey player) and brandan schieppati (a rock and roll singer).  besides those guys, i share august 3 (same day, different year) with james hetfield (metallica, 1963), tom brady (the football player, 1977), john landis (director of animal house, 1950) and brooklyn decker (the model, 1987).

none of any of that is to say anything except that that's the day the story begins.