Hi, I'm Jim Taylor. First let me say this, I am the one to blame for this feeble effort at a homepage. I think the results are quite good considering I am not the brightest person on the planet. I hope you will let me know what you think. I have been studying HTML for about a year since the creation of this site. Endless hours and scores of websites later I seem to be making some progress! I spent almost every waking hour devoting myself to learning HTML and to working on other peoples sites during all the months I was recovering from my accident. Now, I have very little time to work on mine and Gina's site!
I was born in Michigan's capital city, Lansing. No, Detroit is not the capital of Michigan! Don't ask me why. Maybe the politicians wanted to get as far away as possible from the Detroit Tigers, just in case losing were contagious! We moved to Coldwater when I was very young, just long enough for me to become proficient at Red Rover, Red Rover, and to slice my foot open stomping on pop bottles out by the trash barrel.
Then we moved to Battle Creek Michigan. I went to grade school, junior high, and high school here. I was an all-star second baseman in little league, we even had our all-star game televised! I was city junior golf champion one year. I don't know what happened that year, maybe all the really good players had to go on vacation with their parents!!
I spent four lovely years in the Air Force (1967-1971). It seemed that four years in the Air Force was preferable to two years in the Army at that time. It was a wise decision, the closest I came to being killed in Vietnam was when the Cong attacked our base with mortars. The first time they did this they blew the hell out of the baseball field. If anyone had been on the baseball field they certainly would have been killed. But there weren't many players on the field at two in the morning! The second time they tried their luck at blowing up our base I was on R&R in Sydney, Australia. A most pleasurable two weeks I might add. Thank you Sydney!
After some moving around, a year in Houston, a couple in Midland/Bay City Michigan, it was again back to Battle Creek. In 1978 my family bought a thriving business: A large laundromat named Maudies (after it's original owner). This business was never very interesting or rewarding but it made good money. For a few years. It soon became apparent that the utility costs were rising at a much quicker rate than our prices and by the '90's we were just about breaking even. We are still better off than many, what with the larger companies showing their loyalty to their employees by down sizing or firing people a couple of years before retirement.
The best thing about good 'ole Maudies is, it's where I met Gina. She is a beautiful, sweet, loving and sensuous woman. I have waited for her all my life, with a few notable mistakes along the way, and am amazed, with my luck, that I found her at last. She loves me more than anyone ever has or ever will. How many people live a lifetime and never experience a love like that. The way it makes me feel reminds me of the movie Murphy's Romance when James Garner tells Sally Fields he was surprised to find a woman in love with him. Sally asks why, doesn't he like himself much, to which he replies, yes, I like myself fine, I just never expected it to be contagious!! Gina is a new life, a breath of fresh air. She is the last chance I will have to take the lessons learned in a lifetime of mistakes and put them to use to make two people happy.
I knew Gina for eight years before we became more than friends. She came in the laundromat once a week. We would talk, sometimes about her two daughters, sometimes about her involvement with Herbalife or her desire to try her hand at bowling in a local league. But sometimes she needed more than that, and it was at these times that a bond began to form between us. I advised her, gave her support, or just listened. We came to respect and depend on each other. Gina valued my advice, wisdom, and genuine concern. I valued her honesty, good heart, and pleasant disposition. We became friends.
When her eleven year marriage came to it's inevitable end I received a call. If she came over would I help her design some flyers and print them out for her? I agreed to help. To make a long story short, we never made any flyers that night. What we did do is talk. We talked about things we couldn't talk about before. How we felt for each other, how we trusted and needed each other. We touched for the first time that evening. We kissed for the first time that evening. We did one other thing that evening. . . . . . . We fell in love. . . . . . . Gina, for the first time in her life. . . . . . .And me for the last time in my life!
