Author’s Life

This is me at the San Rafael Falls, Ecuador. Coincidentally, it was within 3-5 days of George W. Bush being sworn into office for the first time. A time, at which I had an inclination my life would change, a belief we would be taken to war, and a nievite of how much could possibly change & how those drastic changes would impact me mentally & physically.

Developmental years: good & bad

**Raised in “small town, small mind,” working class GM factory area in upstate NY.

**Educated on how not to conform in a contradiction of where I learned, Clarkson University, an Engineering University located north of the Adirondacks. I spent more time hiking, rock & ice climbing and being in the ‘daks than I did in classes.

**After spending summers in Utah’s mountains, the amazingly beautiful slickrock deserts & the inter-mountain west in general, I moved to the foothills of the Sierras, California near where Mark Twain penned “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” & on lived on the family ranch of current California Lt. Governor, John Garamendi.

**Working with PG&E, I spent my days traversing mountains and rivers, managing tree pruning near PG&E electric lines and my free time kayaking & exploring the untraveled regions of the Mokelumne River & Wilderness. Work took me to the Bay & North Bay towns of Sebastapol & lived with my lab in my van overlooking Bodega Bay. Ultimately, I left the company after a year in San Diego & college loans were paid off.

**The following years were spent crisscrossing the country, based out of Colorado, I accumulated 100 days of snowboarding & 100 days kayaking in CO, NM, WY, CA, ID, NY, WV & Canada. This amazing time was capped off by 2 months in Ecuador kayaking/traveling & 1 month in Peru.

Era of GW Bush Arrives

**”Getting by” and kayaking down to my last pennies, coincidence & fate, resulted in a morning flight booking from Denver to SF to work for my old company, the date 9-11.

**What was meant to be 3 months working to go traveling again, turned into staying with the company to lead project in Lake Tahoe, CA. Pushed limits of efficiency beyond Corporate comfortability, 1 year had passed, parted ways through “joint agreement.” Thereafter, I languished witnessing watching Quagmire in Iraq unfold before my eyes. Decided I needed a “change” & moved to Portland, OR to pursue Nursing School, performed great in pre-reqs, impossible to get in Nursing program.

**Portland life “good”: started Boreal Tree Service on my own company, married Sole, overwhelmed myself with work & burnt myself out. Traveled to my wife’s country of Argentina for 5 weeks, returned to start & stop working repeatedly.

**The picture is of me a year ago at Smith Rocks, Oregon. The last time I’ve done something I wanted to be doing and not absorbed myself in something to “forget” reality. It is also coincidentally that last time I worked.

**For once in my lifetime, I can say a politician’s actions have had a direct impact on me. Hillary’s maniacal never-ending denial is killing my ability to re-enter reality, and both must end.

A good summation of my life from the start of GWB and how Eff’ed up I’ve become.

Interspection-A struggle with myself.