My parents divorced at an early age. My Mother was 26 when I was born and my Dad was 50.  My Mother went on the marry someone else while my Dad did not for many years. I spent weekends with him and a week in the summer. My Mother and Stepfather were borderline alcoholics. I ended up with a half sister and half brother. My stepfather and mother started a trucking company and bought two dump trucks driven by my stepfather and his brother.  They hauled gravel to O'Hare when it was being built. Ended up going bankrupt. Stepfather got messed up with a bad guy who wanted him to go along on a robbery. Told him no and the guy pulled a gun and told hi to drive him to our house. He drove him to his brothers house instead, one street over from us. At some point there was a struggle for the gun and the bad guy was killed. Stepfather stood trial for murder and was acquitted. It was not a fun time. My Dad finally remarried and I chose to go live with him.  Stepmother was very controlling.  Upon graduating from HS (1969) I went to work for the power company, CEO was Thomas Ayers, father of Bill Ayers. I read meters initially and then moved into the Underground department.

I served in the U.S. Air Force from 1971-1975 stationed originally in Gila Bend, AZ and spent my last year at MacDill AFB in Tampa, FL.  In the Air Force I spliced telephone cables at ComEd I spliced power cables.  After the winter of 78-79

I decided we should move out of the north and we headed to Winter Park, FL and I went to work for the CableTV company and learned how to splice coaxial cable. Along the way I had entered Community College to learn about Electronics and earned an A.S. in Electronics Technology.  While with the CableTV company I organized us with the CWA and took part in contract negotiations while on workers comp for a knee injury. It was fun times. 


After that, I went to work for Pizza Time Theater (Chuck E. Cheese) as a store techician, then on to installing the robotic shows in new stores and finally as a District Technical Manager.  After the merger of Pizza Time and Showbiz, it was time to move on.  I became the Manager of Education and later Director of a local Electronics Technical School in the Atlanta area.  We moved to the Atlanta area in 1982 while still employed by Pizza Time.

I enjoyed teaching and the school was growing under my leadership, then the parent company went bankrupt and our ability to participate in the loan and grant programs was withdrawn and we were out of business.  That took me back into CableTV with a contractor initially doing CAD work and then we moved into the fiber splicing business as it became big in the early 90's So, that completed my career of splicing all types of cables. 


I eventually ended up with Scientific Atlanta, a manufacturer of CableTV industry products including digital set-top boxes.  I started there doing training classes and became an expert on the set-top box and the back end server systems.  That led me to the marketing area where I became the technical lead to support our local Demo room and trade show systems for ten years for our digital set-top business.  Cisco came along and bought us telling us how mach they liked the way we did things and then managed, over the years, to totally dismantle the company.  Fortunately for me, they offered a really good early retirement package in 2011 and I never looked back. I was sixty then and haven't worked a paying job since. Don't have millions in the bank, but we do okay with two small pensions, SS and a small annuity that pays every month.

On the aviation side of things. I began taking lessons in 1970. Got about 4 hours in and went into the Air Force. When I got to Gila Bend I hooked up with a CFI and his C-150. Soloed with him and got through my first solo cross-country when reality set in after our first son was born in 1972.  Aviation was on hold until 2008 when I began again and took my check ride in December of that year. Rented for a bit then got a chance to purchase a half share of a Piper Warrior.  Other partner did not really fly much so I had wide open access to the plane. She also owned a hangar, which made it nice.  She finally asked that we add two more partners, so I created an LLC and we added partners. The first two didn't last too long and were replaced, both were students and ended up not flying much at all. As my wife's health got to a point that she could not easily get in and out of the plane and three of the four partners wanted out, we decided to sell the plane to a local flying club. It still flies, quit regularly, to this day. It's had a couple of engines put on it and panel upgrades too.

I joined the local EAA chapter along the way and after my retirement I decided to run against the incumbent President. We had seen member decline steadily under his lack of leadership.  Wasn't totally his fault as he had his arm twisted to run in the first place.  I beat him handily and we began the process of growing the chapter. At one point we were over 300 members, family members included in that total.  I server two two year terms and then a two year term as the treasurer.  As President I started a Youth Program, first with a ground school and later with our build program. We were gifted an additional hangar by a member and his wife. The program allowed youth to come work on airplanes and earn credits for their hours of work that could be used for flight training with the flying club that purchased the Warrior. They had a C-152 and the principal of the club provided pro-bono instruction. We paid $75 per hour at the time for plane.  A little over a year ago myself and a few others disassociated with the chapter due to the current leaderships desire to censor things posted on the chapter Slack account and their heavy handed leadership style.

So, know I spend my time working on our church website and the church newsletter.  Working on a redo of the website. What I have in place now was an interim solution when we found ourselves losing our provider at the time.  Just last Sunday, our church and another nearby church voted to merge our memberships. We've been renting in a strip center a bit off the beaten path and they have a nice 100+ year old sanctuary with a fellowship hall and a couple of classroom trailers.  The next couple of months will be interesting as we bring the two groups together. They are a much older established congregation that has grown very small over the last few years.

My wife and I have two sons born in 72 and 74 and four grandchildren, one girl and three boys.  The youngest grandson just turned seventeen. He plays HS soccer on the Varsity team and in the summer plays club soccer.  He's a junior this year and has played varsity soccer since he was a freshman. The current team is currently 13-0 overall and 3-0 in conference play with three more conference games left. In his freshman year they went to the state semifinals. Last year they played for state championship and lost by a goal in overtime. They played 36 minutes total, one man down.  Hopefully, this year they can take the last step.  Our oldest grandson, graduated from college in December and is an equipment manager for the Carolina Panthers.

Next month I turn seventy-three.  Overall doing fairly well. I have three small blockages in my heart and take statins to control the cholesterol. I have a knee that give me a little trouble now and then, but nothing serious.  My wife had had both hips and knees replaced, had numerous back surgeries, she is fused from S1 - L3 and recently had a spinal cord stimulator implanted to hopefully control back pain she is having due to a disc issue at the L2-2 level. She is also fused in here neck at three levels and will have a shoulder replacement in April.  I guess my primary job is helping to take care of her currently. She can't really drive right now because of her shoulder.

We enjoy going to the movies two to three times a week and generally being together. We go to out grandson's soccer games at least once a week. They play on Tuesdays and Thursday or Friday.  We have a Bible study on Tuesday so we don't make those games.  I think that about covers it.


P.S. Late addition, the grandson's soccer team is number 1 in the state for their class (6A) and number one in the nation.

for those of us without twitter accounts, how about a summary?

The first was an airline commercial advertising its commitment to diversity and inclusion.  Passengers are being seated while it’s announced that the captain is a “three foot transgender pansexual Native American man who identifies as a six foot tall Korean woman” whose epilepsy is triggered by the flashing cockpit lights. The flight ends predictably.

The second is Tyler Fischer (a comedian) stranded in San Francisco for real, but he’s walking through the terminal bitching about how they had to deplane because the engine wouldn’t start and now he’s going to miss his performances and he’s giving information about rescheduling them, but then says as he was exiting he peeked in the cockpit and saw the pilot was a woman, so wondered if there was a surgeon on board that could quick do a sexual transition and turn her into a man so they can take off.

Then he ranted about wheels flying off airplanes and doors popping out and fat people getting two seats. So he says they need to put fat people in a row with a door so when it pops off the fat person plugs it so the plane can still fly.

Apparently Lara Trump is now co-chair of the RNC. Says election integrity will be their priority.

My friend is most focused on the fiscal aspect of Government. He is now convinced, as am I, that there is no saving the country and it will soon collapse. 


There is no stomach in D.C. for fiscal responsibility. Budgets are not passed anymore and we just cruise from CR to CR that is passed at the last minute in the dead of night with tons of spending crammed in it and the President will never veto it.

I've always wondered how we got to people needing 3500+ sq ft houses. We've never had anything more than 1,500 sq ft.

I need 4000'. 2 adults +2 little dogs.

.........................

silly girl

what is more likely is that the judge(s) will be investigated...