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A Bit of Background
I am sixty years old as I begin this blog. (My birthday is 6-Dec-1945.)
Where am I at these days? Unsettled. After a long career as a teacher and high tech guru, my
wife, Ann, and I are trying to settle into a life as innkeepers. Ann edits medical journals
(all done via the internet). I prepare income tax returns for a few bucks.
I am clinically depressed (on medication); still recovering from a nervous breakdown more than two years ago.
My two oldest sons are out there in the world: one employed in a technical position; the other still
enjoying university life. Our youngest, at 17, is still at home struggling
to go along with the idiocy of high school long enough to graduate. There are all good kids: sensible; heads on their
shoulders. They ought to be: their mother is the brightest woman I ever met. Passionately devoted to her
family.
Where do I come from? Here, there, and everywhere. There is no place on this planet that I feel is
"home." I don't think I am alone in that. We never lived anywhere for more than 3-4 years when I was a child,
and, ever since I struck out on my own (at the age of 14), I have grown and evolved, moving when necessary and
losing contact with friends. I still wonder where some of them are. I do have a few friends of some 40 years,
but they are rarely seen. One lives in New Zealand, where I doubt I will ever go; another in Toronto, which
can never be home to me. I have friends of more than 25 years as well; we like each other and keep in touch,
but physical contact is rare. So, yes, you could say I am lonely.
On the more maundane level, I survived my adolescence without family support. I dropped out of high school,
but that did not prevent me from attending and graduating university. I've always had a bit of a problem
following the "rules." I taught high school for eight years. Met Ann in 1979 and married her in 1980. In 1982
I dropped out of teaching and entered the high tech world where I soared for about 23 years while
raising our sons.
I studied music composition (and played violin and Flamenco guitar) in my youth. A few years ago I had
a mid-life awakening and took an afternoon off work every week so that I could paricipate in composition
classes at a local university. I compose. But I am not going to talk about that here. I've got an entire web site
about my music.
When younger and angrier I took part in many anti-war, anti-nuclear weapons demonstrations. I have been
active in the (Anglican) church at various times in my life (now in a lull period). I give as much money
as I can to panhandlers—and sometimes write letters to the editor about social injustice.
That should give you a pretty good idea of where I'm coming from.