What’s a job you would like to do for just one day?

Forensics or investigation, looking for answers through research and searching clues. I feel I would be good at that. It’s interesting to walk a mile in someone’s shoes even if they’re down and destitute or wealthy beyond imagination both present challenges that are unimaginable. I have had so many different jobs some I enjoyed others I despised, but did for a long time because of the paycheck. To me life is a constant yin and yang as it should be, too much of anything is going to sour over time.

Do you vote in political elections?

Yes! I vote in local and national elections because I believe it’s our duty as citizens of the United States to do so. Unfortunately our political system is so corrupt and broken that it’s almost a waste to vote, but what are our options?? What I see today are two candidates that are I believe too old and tired to be that effective, we need a younger individual who has the best interests in keeping our country how it’s meant to be according to our constitution, and provide for the people of America opportunity, prosperity and protection from outside or inside influences. I feel our greatest enemy is corporate America that are buying whatever they want thru corrupt politicians. I am curious as to who will be the one to turn our country around, I have a plan B that will allow me to live a comfortable life in another country if this all goes to pot, but that means leaving behind loved ones and that is a very difficult decision.

Have you ever been camping?

Yeah, when I was a kid I was in the Cub Scout and then Boy Scouts and we camped a lot during the summer months. I did spend a lot of summers camping into my late twenties, but for some reason it just wasn’t a part of my adult life. Now my idea of camping is the Hilton or Marriott. I am physically able to and feel I’m in great shape to sleep in a tent I think I would need at the very least a popup trailer and I can’t camp here in Florida I’m thinking Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine upstate New York definitely up north.

When do you feel most productive?

When I’m building or creating, weather it’s furniture or landscaping my juices start flowing and don’t stop until I have created the image in my mind. Recently I was asked to build a to go counter for a friend who owns a restaurant near me, we met went over a few basic details and he let me run with it because he saw what I did for a mutual friend. It’s the same with my customers who ask me to weed their garden replace dead plants with new and just give things a facelift or an entire make over. For reasons I have yet to discover I do all this on my own, a side gig that has grown into an opportunity to be a real business, but I’m happy where it is and where I am with it.

Describe a risk you took that you do not regret.

The best one is marrying my wife. We met 9 years ago and it was not love at first sight at all, for me it was the culture (she’s Thai) for her it was the adventure. We met at her cousins restaurant she was here on a travel visa helping her cousin get the restaurant up and running. She was 3 months into her 6 month visa when we met and we hung out almost every day. She went back to Thailand and life went back to normal for me, we did keep in touch for awhile but it just faded away and then about a year later she called me and said she wanted to come back to America so I bought her a plane ticket and she arrived in April and we got married in August. That was 8 years ago and our life is amazing, almost story book. She was and is an educated professional woman who actually married me because she saw the good in me, hell I didn’t even know I had any, but apparently I do and she was willing to take the risk as I was. We grew to love and respect one another on a level I never knew existed.

Write about a time when you didn’t take action but wish you had. What would you do differently?

I’ve had a couple few times in my life, mostly when I was younger, the earliest was in my early twenties one of my cousins was going on the road for a couple of years traveling with a circus which I regretted almost immediately because that gave me an opportunity to see a lot of the country and earn a little money. I stayed for a relationship which after ten years failed miserably. Not long after that when I started working for my dad he asked me to take a ride to Maryland to pick up 2 hundred special order stair treads, but I wanted to hang out with friends instead, a selfish stupid decision. Having children was a huge mistake for me because I am not father material at all. I will say once I took complete control of my life there have been no regrets unfortunately that didn’t happen until my mid forties by then I had to settle for work that helped pay child support and drain the life out of me. Life is full of opportunity and regret the trick is to be able to live with the choices you made.

How do you unwind after a demanding day?

These days it’s watching the sunset with my toes in the sand and my mind somewhere else, anywhere else but here. I am a life long dreamer, night time day time it doesn’t matter I am forever wanting to be somewhere else, but I never know where. I am eternally unhappy with my life and always on the lookout for a way out. I have spent years in therapy and been “working “ on myself for longer than I can remember. That’s not to say I never had happiness, I have many times, but they are few and far between and all of this is internal, on the surface I am a happy go lucky joke telling always smiling guy. I have no idea how I got here or where I’m going, but thankfully I have hurt a lot less people over the last 10-15 years.

Jot down the first thing that comes to your mind.

Uncertainty, at the moment we’re working on buying a house in the mountains of NC. and selling our house here in south Florida. Without a large surplus of money we need to put down a substantial amount and hope our house sells quickly. There are very little options and we’ll most likely be living here for another year, the housing market is cooling pretty quickly and being an election year things are slowing down as we all wait and see who will be in charge of our country. At 64 years old this is the worst economical time in life that I can ever remember, the cost of living in this country is the highest I have ever seen, no one from our government is coming to help or reassure us things will get better, we are just stuck in a shit situation with no way out.

Describe a positive thing a family member has done for you.

First are my parents who helped me move away, even against their wishes they knew if I didn’t move I would have imploded. I have 3 brothers 2 older 1 younger, the younger has avoided contact with me for 25 years or more. The 2 older are in contact with me pretty regularly one even lets me use one of his cars when I fly up there. I like to spend a couple of days near him so we can hang out before making the two hour drive north to see my oldest brother and hang out with him and his family for a couple of days. The funny thing about my family is they’re willing to help, but it’s not without repercussions and if I don’t deliver whatever they ask of me they will drag me through the mud and trash talk me, but will help me time after time. So I put myself in a position where I can afford to rent a car, stay at a nice hotel all on my own. Now when I fly up there I stop in for an afternoon of catching up and I’m off doing exactly what I want to do without guilt or backlash. Family is a strange and unpredictable part of life, it’s up to me to decide how I let it affect me, these days there is zero affect, we love each other and will always help each other, but I have others in my life that are far more deserving of my love and respect.

Describe something you learned in high school.

Tripping on THC is great!!!! I enjoyed that much more than smoking pot or drinking booze. Both booze and pot were a passing fad for me, pot just made me hungry so basically it made me fat and stupid so after just a few times I stopped and drinking just made me feel like a garbage human being so than was out. Tripping however vastly expanded my mind, I saw things that I just could not describe at all, but had a profound effect on me. I spend 2 of the 3 years in high school tripping maybe twice a month including the Saturday spend on mushrooms which opened other areas of my imagination. Sometimes I go back to those days where nothing mattered except the moment I was in, that euphoria that embraced my thoughts and turned them into the greatest experiences I ever had. I plan on finishing my life in that moment, totally content, calm and happy, that’s a home run for me.