Whoa, lookin' back at my background
Tryin' to figure out how I ever got here
Some things are still a mystery to me
While others are much too clear.
Jimmy Buffett

I recovered and Dorothy and I got married the following November. Lorien was born in 1975. The most miraculous thing that I have ever witnessed was her birth. To say that she was a joy would be a gross understatement. I took her to some friends to go trick-or-treating when she was 2 and to see the G. Fox & Company Santa Claus that December.

I'm growing older but not up
My metabolic rate is pleasantly stuck
Let those winds of time blow over my head
I'd rather die while I'm living than live while I'm dead
Jimmy Buffett

We moved to Missouri in 1978. I took an ill-fated sales job selling better quality women's sportswear in a 6 state territory  in the Midwest. Dorothy took a professor's position at Northeast Missouri State University (now named Truman State University). Even though I was quite successful at selling, that was not the job for me. I got a job in Kirksville in the HeadStart program. This was the most meaningful job I have ever had. I later left that job and became the director of the Child Development Center at the University. I also taught Child Development and Family Relations courses. Missouri, and Kirksville in particular was a culture shock. We had our little Fiat Spyder sports car while everyone else had these huge monster trucks with Winchesters in the rear window.

               
Everyone should have one convertible and one ridiculous cap in their life.

We moved on. This time, we went to Holland and lived in The Hague. I taught Kindergarten and later became the elementary and middle school computer coordinator at The American School of The Hague. I had always wanted to teach kindergarten and did that for three years. I still think about some of those children who are now young adults with great pleasure.

               
                My first Kindergarten class.             I never was one to take school too seriously.

Computer class with Apple //e computers.

Shortly after Webster University opened a branch in Leiden, I was offered a job there teaching computer courses. I taught an introductory course at Webster which became the basis for the Meet the PC class which is my most popular class today. Since the college was so new and staffed entirely by adjuncts, I was able to play a key role in the program development. The Webster University building was on a picturesque canal.

At first, we lived in a very small apartment in the Bezuidenhout neighborhood. It was a great location. It was near the park, close to shopping, and a short walk to the busses and trams. We used bicycle and public transportation for the first three years that we were there. When Lori was in the first grade, in January, I put her in the bicycle trailer and we took a weekend trip to Amsterdam. We stayed in a youth hostel and visited the Anne Frank House.

Dorothy was an expert on booking inexpensive, great trips. We went to Spain for  week for $100 each - including transportation, 2 meals a day, and hotel. We visited London and Paris for little more than a song also. It was wonderful and exciting. I felt very special being an expatriated American.

The fourth year, we moved to a penthouse apartment. This apartment overlooked the Haagse Bos or Hague woods. It was like living on Central Park. We could see the North Sea 3 miles away and had balconies on three sides of the building. The Queen lived less than a mile down the road, so you know it was a good neighborhood.

A Dutch sunset from our penthouse.

We purchased an Alfa Romeo Alfetta. We were truly in heaven. All good things must end, however. There were administrative problems at The American School of The Hague that affected the entire school atmosphere. It also looked likely that we would have to pay Dutch taxes, so we planned on leaving Holland. Dorothy was hired by St. Joseph College and left to teach. Lorien followed a month later. We shipped the furniture back to the states. I moved into a studio apartment furnished only with a bed, chair, desk, TV, stereo, and computer. It was not a fun time. It got worse.

Dorothy was diagnosed with breast cancer while I was in Holland. I flew back to be with her while she had her exams and later her operation.  My contract at The American School of The Hague was up in June and I left Holland with some real regrets for I really was beginning to feel more at home there than in the United States. I should have just resigned and returned to the US when Dorothy was diagnosed, but we decided that it would be best if I stayed in Holland. I regret not doing that. I returned to Connecticut at the end of the school year. It was a difficult year for us.

I was hired within a week after returning as the Computer Coordinator for the Cromwell Public School System in Cromwell, CT. A couple of years later, I started teaching at Manchester Community College. The Meet the PC class which I first taught in 1988 - wondering what I would do the following semester because no one else would need the class - just keeps going strong. I left Cromwell and worked at MCC and some other community-technical colleges and was later hired as the full-time Computer Coordinator for Continuing Education at MCC. Meet the PC just keeps filling and filling at MCC and Northwest Connecticut Community College. I also taught various computer classes at EastConn, an area education organization in Willimantic. I have my own business, Micro Services Group, which was founded in 1988. I do training, consulting, and repair work for small businesses, professional offices, educational institutions, and state and municipal agencies. I also was hired by Que, a computer book publisher to do chapter reviews and editing on the Microsoft Office series.

I still spend a lot of time going down that long, lonesome highway going to work or to a service call at a customer's office. I spend a lot of time in my car, a 1991 Lincoln Continental. It rides well, is very comfortable, has good pick-up, a good stereo, great air conditioning, and is blue. Who could ask for more?

Bad news... like all good things, it came to an end. The Continental died with 140,000 miles on it. Even thought the body and interior were in superb condition, I would have had to replace the engine for $3500. That was too much to put into such an old car. I purchased a 1996 silver gray Ford Escort hatchback. It broke my heart not to have my Continental. The one really good thing about the Escort is that it averaged 33 mpg on the first tank of gas.

There are things of which I may not speak;  
There are dreams that cannot die;
There are thoughts that make the strong heart weak,
And bring a pallor into the cheek,
And a mist before the eye.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Here are links to two of the colleges at which I teach. I am the Computer Coordinator for Continuing Education at Manchester Community-Technical College where I teach a well-received introductory class called Meet the PC. At Northwestern Connecticut Community-Technical College, I teach a variety of continuing education classes focusing on Word, Access, and Excel.. Some of the other classes I've taught include courses on  DOS, Windows, Lotus1-2-3, WordPro, QuickBooks, and Novell NetWare 3.1x. I also teach an Introduction to Computer class at St. Joseph College.

Visit my classes..

• Manchester Community College Continuing Education
• Northwestern Connecticut Community College
• St. Joseph College

As far as jobs go, I really do enjoy what I do. Life is too short not to enjoy one's work. I like the variety, teaching (and not having behavior problems or having to grade tests or homework), and being my own boss. I don't like the stress and not having any free time. There seems to be so much work available and I don't even try to get extra work - which is nice!

So I can't look back for too long
There's just too much to see waiting in front of me
And I know that I just can't go wrong.
Jimmy Buffett

I learned to sail at YMCA Camp Woodstock as a child. It has always been my secret passion. This spring, I passed my Connecticut Boating test and got my license. That was the first step in my goal of getting a boat. I also want to get a bareboat charter certificate so I can go to the Caribbean and charter a boat. There is so much still left to do. Few things in life can compare to the beauty of a sloop silhouetted against the sun.

Mother, mother ocean, I have heard you call
Wanted to sail upon your waters since I was three feet tall.
Jimmy Buffett

Mostly, I want to sail...  I bought Wisp, on New Years Day of 1999. It was a great way to start the year! Since then, I have been sailing on the Long Island Sound a number of times. Wisp is indeed a dream come true.

So many nights I just dream of the ocean
God I wish I was sailin' again.
Jimmy Buffett

We have often joked that for my epitaph it should read "He didn't work hard enough." I love the irony and, of course, it is something that no one else would ever say. All I have done for quite a while is just work... no play. One of the things which I am doing is trying to lead a more balanced life with work and play.

And now I must confess, I could use some rest
I can't run at this pace very long
Yes it's quite insane, I think it hurts my brain
Jimmy Buffett

The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story,
and writes another, and his humblest hour is when he compares
the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.
James Barrie

There have been few things in life that I've wanted to do that I haven't done. I have few regrets.

If it suddenly ended tomorrow
I could somehow adjust to the fall
Good times and riches and son of a bitches
I've seen more than I can recall.
Jimmy Buffett.

The challenge now is to keep it that way. I hope that when I am older yet, I don't look back with regrets and say, It might have been.

I sit beside the fire and think
of all that I have seen,
of meadow–flowers and butterflies
In summers that have been;

Of yellow leaves and gossamer
in autumns that there were,
with morning mist and silver sun
and wind upon my hair.

I sit beside the fire and think
of how the world will be
when winter comes without a spring
that I shall never see.

For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood in every spring
there is a different green.

I sit beside the fire and think
of people long ago,
and people who will see a world
that I shall never know.

But all the while I sit and think
of times there were before,
I listen for returning feet
and voices at the door.
J.R.R. Tolkien

Life has such strange twists and turns. Click on NEXT to read about facing prostate cancer.

But now the days grow short 
I'm in the autumn of the year 
And now I think of my life as vintage wine
From fine old kegs 
From the brim to the dregs 
And it poured sweet and clear 
It was a very good year
Frank Sinatra