New Things - a conversation with myself

It hit me tonight that I am rapidly approaching my 39th birthday. 39 years. Do you realize what that means? I'll be entering the last year of my 30's.

'Yes John. That's how these things work mathematically.'

OK. OK. But soon to be in my 40's? Where on earth did the time go?

'You learned early on that the earth revolves around the sun, and that constitutes a whole year, and every year you get another year older didn't you?'

Well, yes. Of course I did. But back then the years seemed to drag on endlessly. School years in particular. When, oh when would the summer come? Now I'm turning 39 and thinking where the heck did my twenties go? I did have those, right?

'Yes John. You spent several of those years at school, most of them in the USMC, and a far too many of them trying to decide what you wanted to be when you grew up. Remember?'

No! Well, yes, a little. But those years were over in a blink!

'That's not what you thought at the time.'

No, but now I'm trying to figure out where the thirties went.

'Marriage, kids, jobs and remarkably more school. You know, for someone who couldn't wait to get out of school you certainly seem to keep going back an awful lot.'

Oh hush. I only went back to school to work my way up the EMT ratings to be a medic. I had to have a career that I loved to do the wife and kids thing, right? Speaking of which... When did the Boyo get so flipping tall!?! I was JUST rocking him to sleep as a little baby...what... a couple of weeks ago?

'Six years buddy. It was six years ago. You remember... In your early-ish thirties.'

And my little Sweet Pea... walking and talking and acting like a toddler! She JUST learned to crawl!

'Yeah. Two years, Johnny.'

Holy buckets! Seriously? What about all of my old friends? I saw them just a couple months back, right?

'Sorry to disappoint you again. But it's been two decades for some of them, and a year or two or ten for those who were your best friends. At least you can keep up with them on facebook!'

Man oh man. Now I AM feeling old. Shouldn't I have made my first million by now? Be near the top of the ladder in my career? Or at least somewhere in the middle? All of these years have passed and I still feel like I'm just getting going! What in the sam hill have I been doing all this time?

'Learning, my friend. Learning. Not just in schools either. You seem to teach yourself a new skill or hobby every few months. Is there something you have NOT tried yet? You also get an education in early childhood development and Marriage 101 every day. You are discovering new things about yourself every day too. Like all of the places you still want to see, all of the things you still want to do, all of the things you really don't want to do anymore. You do realize that you'll need to live about two-hundred more years to fit all that study and travel in, don't you?'

Well... but LIFE is happening now! I have to work to pay the bills and I can't just traipse off on my own to do stuff anymore. I'd really rather have the Wife and kiddos along anyway! They are too much fun to not be around. I'll never make a million as a medic, and the 'ladder' is about three rungs high, so not really a great climbing opportunity. What to do? What to do?

'Sounds like you need to do one of two things. A) Settle in to your career and life and just be happy with where you are, what you make, and what you are doing, or B) Throw caution to the wind and go after all of those ideas and dreams. If you choose B, you should probably make a list though. Better to go at it with some sort of plan for a change.'

Caution... Wind... Put 'em together. Life has already been a roller coaster of a ride. Though I have felt at times like it was more coasting. It's well past time to turn the engines on and go full speed ahead. It is exhausting to think about, but I suppose I'll rest when I'm dead.

'You'd better get started then. You are nearing the downhill part of this ride, and you still don't really know what you want to be... Do you?'

I don't know. I've never been fond of defining myself by a job or career. Yes, I am a Paramedic. I enjoy that work for the most part. It gets draining sometimes, dealing with the pain and death. Also dealing with the whiners and hypochondriacs. But I get great satisfaction out of the job sometimes. I don't fit into the mold of being just a medic, though. I'm also an artist that works in a HUGE array of media. Metal, wood, glass, music, photography, name it - I've probably dabbled in it. I'm a gardener who gets totally geeked about every little sprout I plant. I'm a former Marine with all of the pride and attitude that goes with it. I'm fiercely opinionated and once I've made up my mind on something, it is hard to change. I can drive almost any vehicle on land, a bunch on the water, and quite a few in the air. I've been a carpenter, plumber, welder, electrician, roofer and a host of other trades... but never for a living. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool DIY'er... A jack of a great many trades, but a master of none. I know that in everything I do, I still have much to learn. Most importantly, I'm a husband and a father. The money for that isn't great, but the benifits are amazing!

So I guess that all this time, I really did know what I wanted to be. There just wasn't a career path for it.

I want to be the best ME that I can be.

I want to be as good as I possibly can at being a dad and a spouse. I want the best medic I can be. I want to make the best knives that I can make. The best bows, bean towers, stained glass, and other artwork that I can create. Take the best pictures I can take. I want to do as many new things as I can until I can't anymore.

Life is too short for labels. But we get pigeon holed based on jobs or careers, on how much money we make. That has taken a toll on me for far too long. People ask "What do you do?" "I'm a Paramedic." I can say. But it is such a small part of the answer to that question. From now on, I think I'll try answering "Almost everything!" and see where that gets me!

Hmm. What do you do? Almost everything, and not enough.

More Later

What Did You Do Today?

We went to church, and then I planted my garden... finally, and with the help of the Boyo. He's getting better and better as the years go by, and it was so much fun digging in the dirt with him, planting seeds that will feed us later on this summer.

Some people were camping and came to church today anyway. That is their tradition on this weekend.

Some people were BBQing with friends and family.

Some people travel. Some just party the weekend away.

I wonder how many of them thank a member of our armed forces, past or present.

I wonder how many of them go to the cemetery and visit the grave of one who has died for this country.

I wonder how many of them remember what the Memorial stands for this weekend.

Some people spent the day hunkered in full combat gear in the desert, under fire. Or sweating it out on patrol somewhere.

Or dying in the line of duty.

Many will spend the weekend away from festivities, BBQ's, picnics, and family. They are wearing uniforms and are tasked with the job of keeping our freedoms safe. They sacrifice so that those at home can continue to live free.

Thank you to those who remember. It was an honor to serve you.

Thank you to those who served. It was an honor serving with you.

Thank you to those who serve today. Giving me the freedom to work in the garden with my son.

Thank you isn't enough. But thank you.

Semper Fi

More Later

Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Care

Yes, yes. Another political posting. Skip it if you want to.

They are finally repealing the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy for the military. Or at least getting around to it. As a former Marine I just have to say, it's about time!

When I served, gays were not allowed to, and women not allowed in combat units. Well, I was a combat field Marine, so I spent lots of time training to blow up the bad guys. The men and women (yep, we had a couple of them) in my artillery unit trained hard and became the best at what we did. When the subject of DA,DT came up, which was pretty rare anyways, it seemed like almost across the board we really didn't care about a fellow Marines status. It was a non-issue. We didn't care if the person next to us was straight or gay, male or female, black, white, asian, native american, purple. It just didn't matter. We were all camo green.

What mattered was if they would stand and fight when the time came. If you could depend on them to do their job and uphold the traditions of the Marine Corps. What mattered was that you knew that when the crap hit the spinning air mover, they would have your back and you would have theirs.

I'm almost certain we had a couple of guys who were gay in our unit. We didn't care. They were good Marines, and that's what mattered. We had a WM (woman Marine) who was in the Comm platoon (communications). She was an awesome Marine. Knew her job and did it very well. But when we had field training, she was not allowed to go with us because of her gender. Ironically, I think most of us felt that we would trade her any day for a couple of the other comm guys that were perpetually lost when it came to their jobs.

It is time for the military to accept those who want to serve for who they are. I am all for the UCMJ, and all for the traditions of my Marine Corps. Our policy was always "Don't Care, Just Do Your Job", and that worked great.

More Later

My First Forged Knife

Well, my first FINISHED forged knife at least! Second off of the anvil, but the first I am calling a learning experience! (Don't get the blade too thin, you've got nowhere to go!)

Anyway, here it is...



I know it isn't perfect. I can still see some marks I'd want to buff out if I were selling it. But this one is for my use to test the blade. I've got it sharp, but still need work on my sharpening skills. So I might take it to have a professional edge put on. Then I'll test the heck out of it and see how well the edge holds! That's always fun!

I have many ideas about future railroad spike knives. And due to the generosity of my mother-in-law, wife and kiddos, I have over twenty more railroad spikes to craft into knives!

Gotta go to work now.

More Later

A Night at the Forge

Dad came up for another blackmithing class last night. It went very well! I decided to forgo the finishing of my tongs (as I can do these later) and started working on the classic beginners blacksmithing project of forging a railroad spike into a knife.

I got the basic forging done, hardened and tempered the blade and now have reached this stage...


(a before and after shot)

Now I can clean up the blade, do the final shaping and sharpen it to as close to a razor as I can! It's not jaw dropping great, but I'm pretty pleased with it for a first one! I'll be doing many more of these I think, as I had a ball doing this one!

Dad, in the meantime, completed his first tomahawk! He forge welded a piece of high carbon steel between a piece of mild steel that he had curved around, then tapered out the blade. Here it is just before we hardened it...



He's going to temper it next week, and our instructor had a piece of hickory that will make a fantastic handle. All in all a pretty impressive work! I think I may try one next week!

This blacksmithing thing is quite fun!

More later

Mother's Day

Today I am most thankful for the mothers who matter the most to me.

First is my wife, the mother of my kiddos. I am truly thankful that she chose me, chose to have kids with me. They are the light of my world, and without the Wife, simply would not be. Today we celebrated her!

Second, my own mom. Without her, I wouldn't be. Thanks to you Mom, for raising me with Dad. For the man I am today would have been much less without your influence.

Third, the mom of my Wife. Thanks for your amazing daughter. You must have done something right, because she's incredibly special. (And she obviously has good taste!)

Love to all of the moms out there. Thank you for being great moms!

More Later

Blacksmith John

Turns out blacksmithing is a hoot! We've had four classes now, and they have all been instructional and fun. On the way there last time, we saw this...


A nice way to start the evening. Then it was on to class, where we made steel very hot and tried to form it into something.


I've spent the past couple classes making a set of tongs.


This is me cutting out the bad weld I made to try again. I'd like to say that it went great, but for some reason, I just could not get the two parts to stay together. After the three hour class was done, and I had fused those two pieces at least five times using various methods, I decided to just make the other half of the tongs out of a new piece of metal. It took about twenty minutes.

Next class I'll rivet them together and have my tongs! I also hope to start a railroad spike knife, as I have a great many ideas about making those! I'll show you one when I get one done.

That's about all for now...

More Later