Dad, Tell Me About the Time (60)

 Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Do you have any grandkids? How many?

I have lots of grandkids and I love it. Let me see if I can name them all.

Justin & Kira

Evan
Landon
Cameron
Piper

Brandon & Ally

Griffin
Sydney
Hayley
Rosalie
Cooper
Mackenzie
Charlotte
Grayson
Finn

Ben & Sharley

Mariah
Zanee
Lanee
Jack
Freddie
Kit

Trevor & Alycia

Ella
Sawyer
Holden
Kit

Alex & Lisa

James
Adelaide

Sam & Sarah

Ezzy
Skye

That is a total of twenty-seven grandkids.

What do you like to do with your free time?

What free time? I don’t have a lot of free time but when I do get some, I love to run. I still love to run but I was recently diagnosed with arthritis in my left knee. Normally I don’t feel more than the occasional twinge unless I do run. I can get four or five miles in before it becomes really painful. I need this knee to last another twenty years, so I’ve decided no more running for me. I now ride my bike. It is great because I can cover four times the miles in the same time but you do feel closer to nature when you’re running. I guess if I need to feel close to nature I’ll go for a walk. That is fun too.

I also love working in my yard. It is really coming along. Something is killing my tomatoes, but the rest is doing great.

What is a goal you are currently pursuing?

The goal that dominates my life right now is to get my smoker working well enough so that I can sell it.

Once that is done then I really want to make a thermoelectric generator that will work over a small campfire.

A parallel goal is to get my immediate backyard completely finished. I am almost there. All I have to do now is to add the rest of the capstones and then put in accent lighting.

After that I will move on to the side yard. I am very anxious to terrace the hill, but I really need to do the side yard first.

At what age do you plan on retiring?

Let me first define what retiring means to me. I love what I do, and I plan to die in my shop. Why would I ever stop doing something that I love so much?

With that said, retiring to me means that I can work on what I want to work on whenever I want to work on it. I have a lot of flexibility right now, but I want to get to the point that I can just stop and go on a trip for two or three weeks, or maybe go on a mission. I can’t do that just yet.

Maybe another year or two?

If you could live anywhere, where would it be?

San Diego!!! Why would I leave here? I love everything about San Diego except for the cost of living.

What new hobbies have you started up?

Let’s be clear, it isn’t a hobby I would have chosen, but Lisa wanted to go Scottish Country Line Dancing, and I have to admit, it is a lot of fun, and it does keep me moving. That is important at my age.

Do you have any physical challenges?

My first response was going to be, NONE. As I thought about it though, realized that if it wasn’t for modern medicine, I would be very handicapped. 

The first thing to go was my right knee, but a meniscectomy about twenty years ago took care of that.

The next thing to go was my eyes. I had pretty bad strabismus, but strabismus surgery took care of that.

The next thing to go was otosclerosis in my right ear but a stapedectomy took care of that.

The most recent problem is arthritis in my left knee (notably not the knee with the meniscectomy). So far there is no cure for arthritis, but I learned about it early on, so an abundance of care and protection should keep me going as long as I have left.

So at the moment, I have no physical challenges.