My Expanded Profile

I originally wrote the following for my profile, but as this is a free blog site, I found that I was limited by characters, so here it is, in all of it's glory, bringing you from my formative years in diapers, to the present, edited of course for brevity...

I was born in Pittsburgh, PA in the early days of winter, 1958. Without a whole lot of input from me, the second arrival to Bob and Janet’s fledgling brood, our clan headed for the sunny south in 1960. I have pretty much been in the Metro-Charlotte, NC area all of my life. My father, my mentor, passed away in March of 1986 and I miss him each and every day. Mom is doing well, living in Matthews, although somewhat hobbled by a bum ankle. I’ll keep you posted on her.

After 18 or so years of marriage to my former wife, Alison, we found our own Y2K problems and we packed it in as husband and wife. The fruits of our labor are two wonderful young adults, Lyndsay, a graduate of UNCC, and Travis, a rising sophomore at Appalachian State University. Alison and I have found our way past the trials and tribulations of a failing marriage and we support each other in our efforts to send two prepared human beings out into the (somewhat scary) real word.

My sister, three years my senior (sorry Barb) lives with her family in Southern NJ and after taking early retirement from her Pulitzer Prize winning career in journalism, she has settled into a second career as a middle school teacher. Her husband, Les, is my music loving buddy. Les travels with the Philadelphia Eagles as a sports journalist for the Philadelphia Daily News. They have two hilarious sons, Matt, a rising sophomore at Drexel, where he is studying nursing and his younger brother Dan, the Tuba Man.

My brother Jim is five years my junior, married to Cindy for 20 years or so. They have two beautiful daughters, Caitlyn, a rising junior at UNCC (nursing) and her younger sister, Carissa, a high school student. They reside on Crowder’s Mountain

My educational path has taken several twists and turns, but suffice it to say that between 18 years in the nuclear power industry and currently in 10+ years in the field of metallurgical failure analysis, I feel that I have found my way. I specialize in the analysis of good race parts, gone bad. I support the engineering staff of several of the top teams in NASCAR in terms of failures and other metallurgical issues.

It was during the 18 years in power generation that I met a young woman that was vibrant, full of life and energy. Cathy and I watched as between the two of us, we brought 5 children into the world. Time, marriage, family life and employment took Cathy and her family to Asheville and I lost track of my friend. Alas, never say never, as we reunited after 10 years or so through a chance email distribution. Marriages on both sides had failed and the security of seeing someone that you had some sort of history with was somewhat comforting. We’ve been burning up the I-26 / I-40 corridor ever since.

Cathy’s has two sons (Brian and Brad) at NC State University in Raleigh, and her youngest (Brent) is a rising high school junior. Stay tuned for many wacky stories involving two middle lifers, trying to remain young, in love, surrounded by 5 kids and separated by 120 miles. It’ll make for some excellent blog fodder.

My passion (OK, besides Cathy) is the sport of mountain biking. I introduced Cathy to the sport and now she sees why it is that I was so passionate about it. It grips you, pulls you in, adds a degree of excitement to your life, all the while keeping you somewhat fit. OK, so the technical skills are eroding a little (I’ll write about a “minor” tumble that I took, later) and the spare tire that I carry doesn’t fit the bike (although it may fit the car soon if I’m not careful), I still get a kick out of it. I am the recent past president of the Tarheel Trailblazers and I continue to be active in the day to day workings of the club. Much of my blogging will center around our adventures on two wheels.