FAMILY
I have been married for 27 years,
with two children, a 25 year old son, and a 22 year
old daughter. The ugly Paint-by-number-flea-breading cat, called Hidey passed away the night the Swiss Air crashed. She was old, blind, and fell down the stairs and broke her leg. She had to be put to sleep. And my turtles are gone now, three Brazilian Red Earred Sliders, "Rasta", "Fari" and "Myrtle", as are the hampster and the huge white rat. We still have a couple of budgies, and that big fat cat named Buddy. My daughter brought us a beautiful grandson on 1 Nov 2000, and although I know I am "way-too-young" to be a grandfather, this little guy is great. We hide out in my computer room and listen to Harry Belafonte. He will still grow up to be dysfunctional like the rest of us, but he won't know why ;-)
ACTIVITIES.
I don't have alot of hobbies, but
many interests. Unlike others, I detest sports, particularly the BIG 3,
Hockey, Baseball, and Football, which I believe should be limited to three
sports only channels. I want to watch movies, listen to music videos, or
my favorite programming of Nature and Discovery Channels.
I like to build and repair computers,
which I started doing about 9 years ago, when I bought my first PC. Since
then, we added as many as 4 more to the house at times, and have narrowed
it down to my PIII, my wife's PII, and my son has another Pentium. I built a little one for my daughter that will let her play cards and amuse herself. We are on high speed DSL connection and so I seem to be online all the time. I have three laptops,of which one goes everywhere with me. I used to be an active user of a local BBS known as the Razor's Edge
BBS, which reached such fame, that we were featured in the August 1997 Edition of the Maritime Computer Connections Magazine, as we appeared in the October 1996 edition. Unfortunately, the SYSOP of the Razor's
Edge, was transferred to Kingston, Ontario, and the dedicated users
of the Edge, moved ovet to the Cathouse BBS, which took over the activities
of the BBS junkies. We rented a hall, and had one final send off,
for our SYSOP and his wife, before they left. They surprized me by presenting
me with an Award Of Recognition, for my "Perpetual Devotion" and addiction,
having made 3372 calls, between 24 March 1994, and 30 June 1997. This included
calling long distance when I was travelling, and trying to get a successful
Cell-phone linkup from Sea, to keep my message addiction well fed. A BBS is a thing of the past now, and we live on the INTERNET.
I am getting out of shape now, but I was, and like to think I still am, and avid cyclist, having taken my bicyles all over Europe, Canada, USA, and the Virgin Islands. It is common for me to put as much as 100 KM a day, or about 60 miles, on my tires each day, in a foreign port. I used to be a long distance runner, always hoping to work up to a marathon some day, but gave up that idea as I got older. I used to jog up to 10 miles, an average of 3 days a week. I like hiking, walking, cycling, boating (little boats), and I used to be a SCUBA diver, but laid my equipment to rest several years ago. I started working on my genealogy in 1986 and have reached a stalemate, that keeps all but one family line, within only a few generations. I am an early riser, preferring to get up at 5:30 AM every morning, weekends and holidays included. And to contrast it, I am a night person, when I go out. I used to Disc Jockey in Clubs for a few years, and eventually went to pursue it on my own, for private weddings and functions. I love music, and you can imagine the patience of my neighbours, when I like to hear James Brown at 5:30 AM, and having 500 Watt DJ speakers to enhance the sound in the quiet area I live in. (I think the neighbours like that music by now, there hasn't been a warning shot in years)
I am an avid Flea Market/Yard Sale
buff, going every Sunday morning to between 1-5 Flea Markets, locally,
with my buddy, (known as my Twin Brother), another Tom.
His Web Site is linked to mine, and vice versa, and we frantically compete
to learn the HTML tricks and improve our pages.
NAVY
I joined the Canadian
Navy, as a Marine Engineering Technician, Military Occupational Code
311,
27 Sept. 1973, in Halifax, Nova
Scotia, Canada, and took my basic training, (Boot Camp) in the former Recruit School at CFB Cornwallis, on Course 7341, "Fighting 9 Platoon". After Basic training, I awaited my Seamanship Course, and Basic
QL3 Marine Engineering Course.
I was posted to my first ship, HMCS Annapolis, already away in Europe on NATO exercises. I flew to England, then to Cherbourg, France to meet it. I have since been on 5 other ships, 4 of which were the same basic design as the first, that of High Pressure Boilers with 550 PSI steam, at temperatures up to 850 Deg. F. Each of my first 5 ships also carried a Helicopter, and all but one, still stationed in Halifax, have been decommissioned, and replaced by newer ships. I worked my way through Engineering Certifications, to the top, having attained a Certificate 4 (Charge Ticket) to run the ship as the Chief Engine Room Artificer (CERA). Later on, the Canadian Taxpayer will be happy to hear, all that training was in vain, as there is no job in the Canadian Armed Forces for someone of my rank and qualifications. The year that I had to train down (backwards) to a lesser qualification for a new-to-me ship, left me dissatisfied with my job. I was quite perturbed by the poor trade management that allowed this to happen and even consulted a lawyer regarding the qualifications I possess. The power brokers continue to train people to do a job they may never get to perform, at a big cost to the taxpayer, and people like me are disappointed with the results. They continue to train, and increase training for these same qualifications, in spite of the cost, and lack of meaningful employment. I have obtained my 2nd Class Power Engineering Certification in Nova Scotia. If I want to use my qualifications, it will have to be somewhere other than in the Military.
I took a one year French Course, and for awhile, I was functionally bilingual, but lost my french skills while posted on the HMCS Skeena, which was an all-French ship. No one speaks good french anymore.
I Decommissioned another
ship, the HMCS
Cormorant, the last Canadian Diving Ship. I was posted to the Canadian
Forces Naval Engineering School on 18 Sept. 1997, and while there, I qualified as a Lead Auditor in ISO 9000. The Engineering School was not certified in ISO standards, and we used the auditing skills as a basis for our quality audits. I have recently been posted to a new ship, HMCS Athabaskan, and will be attending a familiarization course in British Columbia, Canada, before joining the ship. We travelled down the east coast in Jan 2000, and stopped in New Orleans for Mardi Gras; Puerto Rico and Curacao. I will try to update my pages more often, to keep thnigs more current. I may start a page of my travels. I also manage approximately 7 other websites, including business webpages.
BACKGROUND
Growing up, I was a Military Brat,
my father was in the Canadian Army, and was stationed in Halifax, Nova
Scotia; Belleville, Ontario; Oromocto, New Brunswick; Soest, Westfalia,
Germany; and Baden-Solingen, Schwartzwald, Germany. Baden Solingen was
near Lahr, which is
better known as a former Canadian Military Base. At one time, I could speak
some German, and my former friends from my teen years, have been tracked
down, by way of the links of the Brat
Page, for Children of Canadian Servicemen, and Servicewomen. Regular
reunions are held to get those folks together again.
TRAVELS
I have been in so many countries,
and cities, I will list only a few, and try to link them later.
Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic),
St. Thomas, St. Croix (US Virgin Islands), Bermuda, Bahamas, Jamaica (West
Indies), {USA} Florida (Jacksonville, Fort Lauderdale), Virginia (Norfolk,
Virgina Beach), Maine (Bath, Bangor) Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey,
New Hampshire, Massachusetts (Baltimore, Boston, Gloucester), {CANADA}
Quebec (Montéal, Quebec,Rimouski), Ontario (Ottawa, Toronto, North
Bay, Thunder Bay, Sault St. Marie, Hamilton, Port Colborne, Midland, Sarnia),
New Brunswick (Moncton, Fredricton), Nova Scotia (Halifax, Dartmouth, Sydney),
Newfoundland (Gander, Cornerbrook, Port Aux Basque, St. John's) Labrador
(Happy Vally, Goose Bay), British Columbia (Victoria), Germany (Bremen,
Soest, Baden-Sollingen, Lahr, Kiel, Bonn, Schwelm, Cologne, Munich), France
(Cherbourg, L'Orient, Paris), Portugal (Lisbon, O'Porto, Azores), Spain
(Cadiz), Sweden (Stockholm, Goteborg), Norway (Bergen, Bodo, Oslo), Scotland
(Glasgow, Edinburgh. Rosyth), England (London, Southampton, Portsmouth,
Plymouth), Holland (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Helder), Denmark (Copenhagen),
Belgium (Ghent).