Seize the Day

Twenty Five Things About ME

1. I can fix almost anything with duck tape, bailing twine, or hot glue. I just used my hot glue to make my keyboard slip proof. I repaired several horse blankets in the last two weeks. My profile photo… the brim has black duck tape which is hot glued on… 2 points!

2. I have trouble throwing anything away, and half the time when I do I go back and get it out of the trash.

3. I learned to ski when I was forty, and became a ski instructor at West Mountain for five years. I’ve got a funny ID photo to prove it.

4. I have a degree in electronics and Management and was a electronic hobbyist for several years, I can still fix my guitar amp. I designed and built a darkroom timer and light meter for my enlarger. For the younger people out there, before digital cameras they used this to enlarge photos, with FILM. I still have that, and the cameras. See note 2.

5. Working for the phone company I was part of the whole transformation from mechanical to computerized switches. The memory was stored on aluminum cards with little magnets on them. See note 2.

6. I bought my first computer in the early eighties, a TI and learned to program Basic, Extended Basic, and Forth. I still have that computer… wonder if it works, see note 2.

7. I learned the C programming language at work when I didn’t have to but I was bored. I still have a 8088 computer which I programmed in C. wonder if it works, see note 2.

8. I used to dislike cats. Now we have two barn cats and I like then fine. Maybe because they don’t come in the house. Kitty McKay only meows when he’s hungry, needs some TLC, or wants to show off his “prize”… he is a barn cat after all.

9. I wrote a Guitar Simulation program for the TI Computer in the eighties… I now wished I spent that time practicing more. I did learn a lot about theory though.

10. I got my first horse just eight years ago. I train, ride, and do my own trimming. I like trail rides and rides through the woods.(sounds like a classified) I should have been a cowboy (I do that song) I’m not afraid of getting hurt or falling off a horse, which lets me try stuff out… wish me luck. I don’t fall off much anymore.

11. I’m sorry I traumatized my daughters by holding them in the ocean at Robert Moses State Park with the waves. They told me years later they were scared stiff.

12. I’ve been hosting the open mic at Caffe Lena since 1990. It’s not that I’m such a good player, though I’m making progress, but I went almost every week and was dependable. I still go almost every week to the Caffe and every Tuesday to Pete’s open mic at Gaffney’s. He is so good.

13. I love to cook. My specialties are stuffed grapevine leaves, any kind of breakfast, crepes, tomato sauce, and I make a mean turkey soup and am especially good at throwing leftovers together… having them taste good… well not so much.

14. I love photography. Now I post many on flickr but I’ve been taking pictures since high school, with a black and white Polaroid. I got my first SLR when I was in the Air Force stationed at Goose Bay, Labordor. See note 2.

15. I don’t read for pleasure much and most of my books are computers, horses, and fixing things… building things. I just went through a 700 page on a computer system in about a two weeks, but read a novel… not lately. The last novel I read was Lord of the Rings.

16. I built all the stalls and lofts in my barn with rough cut lumber. I’m no carpenter but their built strong. I build with no plan, I just pick a place to start and design as I go. Sometimes I’ll get an idea and do it a year later… who knows.

17. I can touch type. Thank you Mrs. Bressler in 10th grade at Martin Van Buren HS. I took the class because I know there would be mainly girls in that class. YUP, I was right. Typing has given me the edge in my career as a computer technician in the phone company because the early systems were all input output manuals with long commands. I could type it right from the book. I even learned to re home my fingers to the numbers on top. It doesn’t sound like a big deal but it was for me. I still type pretty well, but thank God for spell checker.

18. I don’t text on the phone… too hard.

19. My drink of choice when I go to a bar is a Gunness draft. I don’t really like Gunness but that’s the best way to “nurse” a drink for an hour. If I liked it it would be gone in no time. Then a couple of Guinness’s for the evening and my head is still on straight. Besides, it’s more like a snack than a drink.

20. Cesar Millan is my fashion mentor… really, I want to know where he gets his shirts.

21. I grew up in the projects in Astoria Queens. I remember looking out my window at the courtyard in the summer and wondered why I couldn’t be outside playing punch ball or hand ball instead of going to bed early. P.S. My brother Chris was the coolest guy in the world, he worked at the candy store and sometimes I got a free soda!

22. I dislocated my shoulder learning how to snowboard. When I was training my young colt he would pull it out all the time. I used to put a belt to strap my elbow to my side. I did eventually train that horse. My wife and friend Steve knows how to pop it back in if she has to.

23. I am a songwriter and have written some memorable songs. I say that because on several occasions I have gotten a request for a song which someone heard once, several years prior.

24. I am such a wimp at times, a good commercial can get me going. I usually go in the other room on some pretense so my wife don’t know…. she ALWAYS knows.

25. I’ve been learning how to rope and I practiced on the dogs. (One is 140lb and the other 110) Till this day if they don’t come when their called, I can go out with the rope and they run in the house like their tail was on fire. I’m not as good on cows yet.