Waking up.
So: This is my new website. Thanks for stopping by. Take a look around, if you like.
The more astute reader might notice that this I my first blog entry in the better part of three years.
I’ve been sorta busy for a while.
Glancing at my earlier entries, you will see that they were all written in Hawaii. The Big Island of Hawaii, to be specific. Also known as the Island of Hawaii, which always struck me as redundant, as all the islands that make up the state of Hawaii are, by their very nature, Islands of Hawaii. But I digress.
If you stick around, you’ll find that I do a lot of that.
So my wife and my dogs and cats and I lived on the Big Island for about 12 years or so, but I only ever had a job there for a brief time back in the mid-2000s. I spent a lot of time traveling to work on the US mainland and elsewhere, while the aforementioned wife, dogs, and cats enjoyed living in the tropics.
Prior to moving to Hawaii, I lived and worked on an even smaller Pacific Island for a decade or so. That island was called Johnston Island, the largest island of Johnston Atoll. Many things happened there before I landed, including atmospheric nuclear testing and bio-weapon experimentation. My colleagues and I were there to build and run the prototype plant for the destruction of the US chemical weapons arsenal. It was the best job ever, what with the pay and the people and the scuba diving and all. Plus it came with the karmic bonus of eliminating weapons of mass destruction.
When we finished, we all had to find a place to live. Hence, Hawaii and all the traveling while not living in Hawaii. Mostly working at the new mainland plants that were destroying the rest of the arsenal. But that work is running out because most of the weapons are gone now.
Yay.
So, here we were, living in Hawaii, but there wasn’t much work to live on.
Consequently, (short story made long) just about two and a half years ago, I accepted a job at a steel mill in Western Pennsylvania. Who knew there was still an American steel business? Show of hands?
All right, so most of you knew. I was living in the tropics, how was I to know? You heard about the rust belt? Billy Joel’s Allentown?
Anyway, here I am in Pennsylvania, working a new job in a new industry in a new place. Somehow, after the Pacific islands, returning to the mainland to live was kinda like waking up.
My wife eventually got here, too. With the dogs and the cats.
Like I said, I’ve been busy.
I plan to bring this blog back to life, blogging about reading and writing, travel and trivia. I’ll post some snippets of what I’m writing; maybe a short story or two.
You might find it funny; you might find it useful. Or not. Maybe you'll hate it or simply find it boring and go away.
But, with luck, I’ll be here. You know, just in case there’s something here you find interesting someday.
Now that I’m awake.