I have been a farmer, soldier, banker, legal counsel, prosecutor, lumberjack, magazine columnist, programmer, short order cook, lifeguard, heavy equipment operator, blacksmith, carpenter, mason, electrician, math tutor, truck driver, owner, employee, plumber and other things too complicated to explain (how do i describe creating and implementing large scale multi-million dollar robotics systems, where for a couple years I was largely a one man show – ahh, the good old days when software engineers were rock stars…at least in certain venues).

I have seldom been bored. I have been terrified at times,…but bored, never. I do not claim to have been good at all these things, but I learned something at every job. Some were fun, some weren’t. Some I made a lot of money, some I just stayed afloat.

I met a lot of different people. Most good, some bad. I have been in very bad places and had good people help me, people who I did not expect kindness from. I have been in very good places and been treated badly by those I least expected to do so.

My point, other than an old man rambling on? As I look back, I realize I don’t remember any vacations although I took them at odd times. I remember the things I did, the things I built, the people I worked with, the rations shared in the middle of the dense brooding jungle in an old abandoned French fort, the big hulking assistant football coach at Penn State that taught swimming and life guarding during the off season explaining the intricacies of running an efficient urban swimming pool program, … oh heck, I’m rambling again.

In short, live life to the fullest, you can rest when you’re dead.