Autobiography

Summer, 2019, before the pandemic.

I was working in a “open plan” office, albeit a very pleasant one in downtown Denver.

Once, I met Scott Carpenter, one of the Original 7 Astronauts.

When I was maybe 11, some folks bought the hillside north of my parents’ house. The head of this new household, named Monte, had a 1940s bulldozer. He carved out the hillside to create a flat zone, maybe half an acre, for their house.

As part of putting in a dwelling, Monte and some friends and/or relatives dug a well in that flat zone.

I grew up in Kirksville, Missouri, the largest town within an 88 mile radius. Had to go to Hannibal, or Quincy or Columbia to get to a larger town.

But I’ve also had a life-long love of Bob Marley’s reggae music.

This is the book that led me to a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering:

I read George Orwell’s 1984 sometime during “Junior High”, which in the 1970s was what we now call “middle school”. My district, Adair County R-III, had grades 7, 8 and 9 in their own building.

The school library had a copy of 1984. I was busy reading a lot my 7th and 8th grade years, so I read it.

I wrote some about my rock climbing in a post about 1983.

I also did some ice climbing, between about 1984 and January, 1990.

Summer 2021 I bought a Stirling Cycle engine kit. This is a type of heat engine, and in the case of the kit I assembled, the heat came from a small alcohol lamp.

I went to the local drive-thru strip mall liquor store to buy some Everclear.

My weirdest year.