About Me

Chances are that if you’re reading this page. you already know a little about me. Or maybe a lot about me. I’m pretty sure that the readers of this page are limited to my friends and relatives. On the off chance that you aren’t one of them, here’s a bit about the author.

Huge update note:
It’s January, 2015 and this is hopelessly outdated.
Monica and I are retired and we split our time between Volta Redonda, RJ, Brasil and Cape Coral, FL, USA.  We don’t miss Delaware at all.
We own a nice house in each place, and love to spend our time improving them.
I’ll re-do this page soon to reflect this.  Actually, I didn’t blog for a year or two and had just about forgotten that this site was here.  I’m still not crazy about putting all of my personal info out on the internet (the reason that we stopped the blog thing), but maybe I can reach some sort of compromise with my suspicious half…

Where I live.

I live in the State of Delaware, tucked underneath Pennsylvania, between Maryland and New Jersey. It’s not a bad place to live. I was born here and except for a ten-year stint in Southern California, I’ve lived here all of my life. I presently live in a little row house in a not-so-nice-but-getting-better part of the largest city in the state. I live there for a number of reasons – the biggest ones being that it’s convenient to work and really inexpensive.  Update 4/09 – I live in a different house now – it’s a fixer-upper near the other one.

I’m crazy in love with a Brasileira. I met Monica on the internet (oh no!!) back in March of 2006. She lives in Brasil in a city called Volta Redonda. I’ve been spending a week there every month since May of ’06. If you’re counting, that’s over two years. She’s coming to the US in July of 2008 to be my wife and partner, but she would really rather have me move there. Either way, I’m a lucky guy.  Jan 2009 update– Monica lives with me now in the US. We’ve been married since July, and it gets better every day.

Where I work.

How can could I spend a week in South America every month? I have a shift work job that gives me a seven-day break every month. I work 12 hour shifts pretty hard for three weeks and then get that fourth one off. I work in an oil refinery and I really like my job. I get to use my head and solve problems – every day is different.The job fits me pretty well. I’ve been working at that refinery for most of my life (30 years in April).  Jan 2009 update – I’m in Brasil right now for the month of January, but I no longer fly there every month – Monica lives with me now.  Jan 2010 update – The refinery is shutting down and we’re all looking for work.

Kids and Stuff.

I’ve got three great kids (and one granddaughter just this spring). One of them just became a mom – she lives in Alabama. The next one hunts submarines in the Pacific for Uncle Sam. My youngest still lives at home and is working out what he wants to do with his life. He already knows that he doesn’t like concrete work or retail or washing dishes…..  I also have a very cool dog named Bonnie.

For fun, I travel. I am learning Portuguese (thank you Dr. Pimsleur). I’ve got some great dive buddies, and SCUBA is a great way to spend a morning (and also great reason to head to the tropics in the winter for a week). I spend way too much time on the Internet and I do all of my own home and auto maintenance.

Politics.

/on soapbox

I agree completely with almost everything that Thomas Jefferson ever wrote. I believe that government is a necessary evil and should be involved as little as possible with our lives. I also abhor anything that hints at socialism. No one has a claim on my money (earned with the sweat of my labor) unless I have entered willingly into a deal for the benefit of both of us. I may choose to finance a house or a car, for example. However, if you make a claim on me without such a contract or agreement, my labor is expended for your benefit without my consent. I become a slave to those who make that claim. Using government to enforce that slavery is what socialism is all about. Without sufficient restrictions, this is the end result of any government. Our founding fathers understood that and went to great pains to see that future generations might be free. There are always people working to move us from freedom, though. The biggest attraction is the “something for nothing” argument made by losers who are hoping to get some booty from the sweat of another’s brow. Free medical care, anyone?? Unfortunately, our alleged representatives in Washington pander to the worst of them, buying their mindless votes with the promise of goods and services paid for by the work of someone else. What really p*sses me off is that more people don’t recognize this. We keep sending the same suit wearing prostitutes back to “represent” us. Grrrrrrrrrr. This craven behavior is not limited to one political party. I am and have always been a conservative, not necessarily a Republican.

The War in Iraq.

On September 12, 2001, everyone in the US was walking around on pins-and-needles, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Well, it’s been almost seven years and there has not been even one terrorist attack on US soil since then. Whether by design or not, we have brought the war to our enemies. If you are a jihadist and you want to kill Americans, you’re headed to Iraq, not here. You’re also up against the best equipped and trained fighting force that the world has ever known. You’re not going to last long, pal.

Iraq’s democracy is growing stronger every day and is shouldering more of the responsibility of defending itself. We’re going to be gone as soon as we can, and we will leave a free people behind. We have freed 27 million of them. Those who held power with the dictator and those who enjoyed special privileges are really upset with us. So are the religious extremists who see democracy as a cancer and wish to stamp it out before it can spread (like it did in Eastern Europe). Sucks to be them.

If you’re a spineless ninny that wants to abandon our allies in Iraq (who have shed much more blood than we have) in order to “bring our troops home now”, you’re just wrong.  The film footage of our disgraceful abandonment of South Vietnam has been played thousands of times by our enemies as a lesson about how spineless Americans are. “Keep up the pressure and the Americans will leave – the war is unpopular at home”. Every time you protest, you gladden the hearts of evil that want to see you dead, or at least bowing towards Mecca five times a day.

Do you really care about the young heroes in Iraq? Really? Prove it to me. First, go to YouTube and look at Daniel Pearl’s last moments as his head was being sawed off simply because he was a Jewish-American. That’s evil. It exists. It’s what we’re fighting. Now go make a donation to the USO. It’ll help our troops directly. If, after that, you wanna go protest, be my guest. Remember, those troops over there are keeping the guys with the knives and bombs over there, too.

/off soapbox