Tom Young's first journal
Posted: Sat Sep 06, 2014 7:05 pm
Gee... never had a journal before. A few attempts at a web page (which still exist, but are long forgotten), but wow... a journal... pretty exciting.
Ever since learning to read in the second grade, I've been a sponge... ??? do sponges have brains?
A long almost 80 year life, spent soaking up information. The arrogance of ignorance, that led me to my namesake, a polymath... a legend in his own time, but not in ours, and so a mostly anonymous avatar for the general public.
A good student, and a good athlete that got me through a great college at which point came marriage and four children. A US army stint, and a career in retailing, far afield from the Psychology Major, and the wide ranging liberal arts courses that left a never ending thirst for knowledge of all kinds.
So now, after my working life ended in 1989, DW and I are happily retired for 25 years, fairly healthy, and while relatively poor, can see our way to the age of 85 or maybe 90.
Interests? Too many to list, but for starters, the exploratory college courses... Biology, History Creative writing, French, German (my minor), Astronomy, Music, Comparative Religion, Philosophy, too much math... my downfall, World Art, with some audited classes in anthropology, and of all things, Goethe.
The sport was swimming,,, All American Swim Team 3 years HS and 4 in College as well as NCAA championships. Add to this the ancillary sports of Sailing Body Surfing, Canoeing, Camping Hiking, Biking (which I still do daily).
Am into mechanics, auto repair, bicycle collecting and repair, computers (still teach classes), birding, and have had 30 years in Boy Scouts. Favorite current hobby... salvage. Like to pick up used, discarded things and restore them, and then give them away. Am a hoarder of sorts, keeping parts and stuff for repair, so that I hardly ever have to go to Lowes or Home Depot. Small coin collection, and a small stamp collection that I can't seem to find.
When we retired, relatively poor, in 1989, after 3 years of my own business cut short by cancer, we lived in a park model camper, in a campground, on a lake in Illinois, thence... after a horrible winter, to a mobile home park in FL,,, 6 months in each place from 1990 to 2004 when we bought into our current CCRC, which we love. We still own in Florida, and our place on the lake, (25 miles away from our CCRC), but that will only be for a few more years. Upkeep too strenuous. .
That's enough ego stroking for the time being.
I don't know if we qualify for "extreme" financial independence, but the way we've structured our savings, investments, SS (at age 62) and our expenses, we haven't had to pay State or Federal taxes since 1991.
That's a nutshell starter for my "journal".
Ever since learning to read in the second grade, I've been a sponge... ??? do sponges have brains?
A long almost 80 year life, spent soaking up information. The arrogance of ignorance, that led me to my namesake, a polymath... a legend in his own time, but not in ours, and so a mostly anonymous avatar for the general public.
A good student, and a good athlete that got me through a great college at which point came marriage and four children. A US army stint, and a career in retailing, far afield from the Psychology Major, and the wide ranging liberal arts courses that left a never ending thirst for knowledge of all kinds.
So now, after my working life ended in 1989, DW and I are happily retired for 25 years, fairly healthy, and while relatively poor, can see our way to the age of 85 or maybe 90.
Interests? Too many to list, but for starters, the exploratory college courses... Biology, History Creative writing, French, German (my minor), Astronomy, Music, Comparative Religion, Philosophy, too much math... my downfall, World Art, with some audited classes in anthropology, and of all things, Goethe.
The sport was swimming,,, All American Swim Team 3 years HS and 4 in College as well as NCAA championships. Add to this the ancillary sports of Sailing Body Surfing, Canoeing, Camping Hiking, Biking (which I still do daily).
Am into mechanics, auto repair, bicycle collecting and repair, computers (still teach classes), birding, and have had 30 years in Boy Scouts. Favorite current hobby... salvage. Like to pick up used, discarded things and restore them, and then give them away. Am a hoarder of sorts, keeping parts and stuff for repair, so that I hardly ever have to go to Lowes or Home Depot. Small coin collection, and a small stamp collection that I can't seem to find.
When we retired, relatively poor, in 1989, after 3 years of my own business cut short by cancer, we lived in a park model camper, in a campground, on a lake in Illinois, thence... after a horrible winter, to a mobile home park in FL,,, 6 months in each place from 1990 to 2004 when we bought into our current CCRC, which we love. We still own in Florida, and our place on the lake, (25 miles away from our CCRC), but that will only be for a few more years. Upkeep too strenuous. .
That's enough ego stroking for the time being.
I don't know if we qualify for "extreme" financial independence, but the way we've structured our savings, investments, SS (at age 62) and our expenses, we haven't had to pay State or Federal taxes since 1991.
That's a nutshell starter for my "journal".