What a Long Strange Trip It's Been

The title to the greatest hits of the Grateful Dead seems to be a perfect description of my life.

In March of 1982 (I was 39) I had a massive coronary which destroyed the bottom third of my heart. The cardiologists gave me five years "at the outside".

Fooled them!!

Right now I am the most content I have been in years, my new bride can take most of the credit for that and some goes to my Little Girls (who can always make me smile)! I have new energy, new directions, and better health than I have had in about five years.

It is really hard for me to believe that next summer is the fiftieth year Reunion of the Class of 1960 of Johnson High School, or that it has been 41 years since I was discharged from the Air Force, or that it has been 35 years since I have been in a classroom.

I hope to take a class or two this Fall, but they will be entirely online...it still should be interesting. I'm hoping to finish another couple of degrees...not for any reason than self-actualization, to keep the "brain farts" to a minimum, and to give me a purpose for the next few years.

But enough of that, it's time to go back to recounting my adventures and misadventures...

When I enlisted in the Air Force it was to be in Military Intelligence (I know, I know, that's and oxymoron). I took the equivalent of three years of Russian in a period of about six months and spent another six months learning intelligence skills and techniques. I was then assigned to Istanbul, Turkey for a little over two years. Much more on this period in later web logs, I then returned to the "States" and was assigned to Westover AFB in Springfield, Massachusetts...but really it was just a jumping off point for TDY (temporary duty assignments) all over the East Coast. More about that in later web logs too.

When I got out of the Air Force I went back to college on the GI Bill and finished a two year Associates Degree in less than a year...and qualified for a "Free Ride" toward a BA in American Studies at Hamline University. I was all set-up for a three year PHD Program at the University of Minnesota...but my wife got pregnant with my son and I needed to find a job.

I refer you back to the assessment experiment in the last log.

I went to work for Northwestern Bell and worked for them for about five years, worked for a company out of Northern Ireland for about three years, went back to Bell and ended up at AT&T. I was the top salesman in the country for them for about two years in a row...but they wouldn't allow me to manage my own "crew". So I went to work for CONTEL and had a really great time...they gave me all the freedom that I wanted, but they got swallowed up by GTE and I was odd man out. I went to work for the German company SEIMENS, which was not a match for my personality and skills, so I went to work as a General Manager for VICOM (one of their Gold Seal Dealers). I fit into this company really well and had a lot of fun until I started having more heart issues and had to retire from the telephone industry.

The next phase of my life was pretty depressing...but I made it through everything and was able to keep my "Polyanna outlook" for the most part.

We will take some more side trips in future logs but right now I will leave you with this quote from Jerry Garcia "And for me there's still more material than 20 lifetimes could use up."

My feelings exactly!!