Getting Started

I guess this is how all blogs get started (a getting started post), although fame is not my aim here, my nephew has become somewhat of a celebrity doing this as a "milblogger", as soon as I figure out how to do it, I will link to him (and with any luck he will link here so someone will be able to find me).


So you ask "what is my aim here?" There are a couple of things that come to mind, first I feel like I need to express myself and this provides a convenient outlet. Second, I have in my 49+ years gained a measure of wisdom that I would like to share with anyone who might be interested. Also, at 49+, if I don't write stuff down, I tend to loose what could be valuable memories someday. So some of it will be a little personal but mostly it will be some expression of the rambling thoughts that cross my mind.



Who is this guy anyway? Is another question that might come to your mind. As the name of the blog implies, I am a dad of three girls. I was married for the first time at 41 and even in this age of I-want-it-now-and-nothing-is-going-to-get-in-my-way, I waited until after that event to start having kids. This fact makes me a bit older than most dads of a 6yo a 2yo and a 4 week old. To compound matters, the beautiful woman that I married has a significantly higher earning potential than I do, so when we decided to have one of us "stay home" with children, I was the logical choice.

Some other information about me:

Worldview: I am an unapologetic Christian. I will listen to other points of view, and have looked critically at other worldviews (as well as mine) and have come to the conclusion that the one that makes the most sense is the one presented in The Bible. It has the most plausible explanation for how all that is got to be here (I would love to have a better understanding of all of the intricacies of how it was done, but I'll wait 'til I get to heaven). It gives the best understanding of the nature of what I am as a human being, and how I relate to what is around me. And it presents a way to regain a real relationship with the God who created all of this including me. I will probably explore this in greater depth here in these posts as time goes on.

My Past: I was born in Minneapolis and grew up with three sisters in a home that had a loving (but not perfect) mother and father who modeled a real commitment to each other and to their children. They (to the best of my knowledge) remained true to their commitment until my father's death in January 2002. They taught us the worldview I spoke of above, but did not force feed it to us, in the end they realized that each of us would have to accept or reject it on our own terms.

We moved to New Orleans in 1972 in time for me to start high school. After high school I attended the University of New Orleans where I crammed a 4 year BS in computer Science into 5 years and graduated (barely) without honors of any kind. I concurrently attended Navy ROTC at Tulane University where I was commissioned as an Ensign in May 1981.

From there I went to Navy flight training in Pensacola, FL and earned my Naval Aviator wings in November 1982. I was humbled when on that day my dad came up to me and told me that if he had been able to choose a life path for me, this would have been it. I went from flight training to Atsugi, Japan (a small Naval Air Facility southwest of Tokyo) to fly UC-12Bs (King Air B200) for 2 years then on to San Diego, CA to fly H-46s at Helicopter Combat Support Squadron Eleven (HC-11). My last active duty tour was at Navy Recruiting District, New Orleans where I spent 4 years flying a T-34B (an older piston engine version of what I learned to fly in) when I was not out beating the bushes for people to entice into a navy career.From here I left active duty when I did not promote and went into the reserves.

Also at this time I went and got my aircraft mechanic's certificate because I thought about becoming a missionary pilot. I wound up going to work as a helicopter charter pilot/mechanic, then back to Delgado Community College (where I earned my mechanic certificate) as an instructor. When my church in New Orleans needed a facilities manager I went to fill that job and when that job ended during a building relocation squabble, I went back to turning wrenches.

When I started at the church was also around the time I really fell for the woman who would become my wife (I'll probably devote a post in the future to introducing Susan). The job ended just in time for our first little girl to be born, and my mechanic job provided the flexibility for me to be the "go-to" parent if she got sick or whatever at day-care. We were living in New Orleans and Susan was working in Covington commuting daily across the 25 mile Causeway bridge.

When Susan and her partners planned to move their medical practice from Covington to Lacombe, we decided it was time to move our little family across the lake and we found a great house with a little land less than a mile from where they were going to build their office so here we are. We were also blessed in this move in that the house we owned in New Orleans had water up to the eaves following Hurricane Katrina.

My Future: I kind of think I am following a Moses like pattern, 40 years here 40 years there and 40 somwhere else. So using this logic I guess I will be blogging until somewhere around 2078.

Well that is probably more information about me than many of you would care to have, but I kinda like to know something about the bloggers I read. I figure it is easier to understand what someone has to say if I know where they are coming from.