ABOUT

My first job was as a grocery clerk.  I've worked in a warehouse.  For a long time I was in the Coast Guard, where I started out as a men's room custodian.  Then I was a personnel clerk.  Then an admiral's aide.  A military instructor.  A school chief.  Military personnel officer.  Commanding officer.  Boot Camp chief.  At various times I've also worked as a sausage maker, butcher, cashier, export manager, software developer, security officer, consultant, a shipyard launch coordinator, and a radio station disk jockey.

 I've traveled to 49 U.S. States, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Scotland, England, Grenada, Bonaire, Panama, Aruba, Costa Rica, Mexico,  U.S. Virgin Islands, Dominica, Nicaragua, Grand Cayman Island, Bahamas, Belize, and Colombia.

I've sailed all 5 Great Lakes.  I've traveled the full length of the St. Lawrence Seaway (including every lock from Sault Ste. Marie to Montreal), the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Baffin Bay, the Greenland Sea, the North Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea, the Arctic Ocean, the North Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, the Panama Canal, much of the Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico.

 I speak German, Spanish, French, and English, and none of them very well.  My interests include reading, writing, poetry, woodworking, toy making, most things electrical, and all things mechanical; gears, cams, shafts, levers, and pulleys, probably because of my fascination with clocks and watches.

Among other odd jobs I have wired my own garage and basement.  I have poured concrete.  Built a canoe.  Laid brick.  Built a shed.  Made a knife.  Carved a bird. 


I once manned the helm of a polar icebreaker, flew an HH-52 helicopter, and piloted a twin engine plane.

I've seen polar bears on the arctic ice cap, and walrus on an ice floe.  I've seen seals, dolphin, humpback whales in the wild.  I've touched a sea turtle swimming in the ocean.  And as it turns out, I'm an animal whisperer of sorts. 

No clue why. 

I love critters and pay attention to them.  Maybe they sense that I have no interest in hurting them.

Finally, I'm a poet and children's book author.   We'll see what happens next!