Ok, now at last -- Seven Things about Me

Long ago Mike tagged me on this, so it’s way overdue.

1. I’m father to a fine 13 year-old girl. Perhaps parenthood defines who I am more than anything. She’s bright, difficult, draining, independent, delightful, disappointing, impossible, dependent, talented, frustrating, inspiring,. . .

2. I’m happily married for 4 years now. While M doesn’t play an instrument, it’s M that helped re-kindle my interest in getting back into music, but in a different way. M kindly accepts, and even encourages, me in this cello pursuit.

3. I was in the Navy for seven years. Oh yeah, I’ve seen much of the world --- mostly the unimaginably immense watery part. I served on two ships, the USS Bradley and USS Chicago, and as an embarkation instructor at a Marine training command. I really liked those days as an instructor. Marines is good people.

4. I’m a computer professional. The computer world is so incredibly large, so incredibly diverse, that a label like that means absolutely nothing. So let me refine it – a former IBM mainframe, former OS/2, now Unix computer professional using a message brokering system to connect numerous disparate computer systems dealing with law enforcement and criminal justice for a very large metropolitan entity. (Yeah, it’s an occupational hazard; after enough years we all start talking like that.)

5. I’m a Penn State alumnus, class of ‘75. Hail to the Lion!

6. My wife and I are considering buying recumbent bicycles. Anybody out there familiar with them?

7. I’ve been through over 12 years of near constant litigation to maintain contact with my daughter (I currently have her about 1/3 of the time). I’ve had 70 or more court dates since 1996. My ex will not again attempting to reduce my time and increase my payments, so and I must return to court yet again on December 5th. Naturally, my opinion of Family Law courts and attorneys is pretty darn low, and the senseless conflict drains my spirit and my faith in humanity. But these things are also a part of life.