Life is changing. I haven’t figured out whether I be retired or not. I do earn income from a few assorted activities, but, since I yearn to do lots of travelling which can get expensive quickly, I am still open to the possibilities of doing something full time in order to put my skills to beneficial use and to earn funds rather than spend funds on perpetual vacation.
All my children are getting married this year. My eldest son just had his wedding to a woman he had only met just last summer while he was travelling (not with me). This wedding had minimal advanced planning. I only found out that I was going to be the one to pick up the food for the nuptial dinner the day before the big event, but all went well. My new daughter-in-law tells me they plan on having lots of children.
The next marriage is in just a few months. This wedding has been planned much further (over a year) in advance, since before my eldest son had even met his bride. I am a bit nervous but excited.
Before I was ever married, I would sometimes say my favourite Bible verse of the day was Proverbs xviii:22 which says ‘𝑊ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑜 findeth a wife findeth a good 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔, and obtaineth favour of the Lord.’
Now I also have some step-children with various marital statuses, but don’t interpret my announcment as relating to any of them. I don't anticipate any of that changing, but who knows?
One Father’s Day, probably about 1999 (± a few years), Clairmont Hills Baptist Church once gave out some small books called A Father's Legacy to all of the fathers present at the Sunday-morning worship service. The books were about 120 pages of open-ended questions that the fathers were intended to write answers and advice regarding their own lives, experiences, and relationships to give unto their own children. It took me about 25 years, but I filled out one of the books for each of my children, and finally gave it to them either just before or at my eldest son’s wedding. To be honest, I wrote, more or less, the same things in each of the books, but there was some individualisation, and a wee bit of editorial revision with each copy I manually made. I have yet to receive feedback on the books which they probably have not had time to read yet; they may not have liked the present, but I felt good to convey that information.
Marriage is a commitment for life. I wish you all, and especially my own children a long life, prosperity, and rich blessings in your own marriages. For those of you unmarried, I pray that you be acceptable in favour unto both God and society, and that you will be, devoted in service unto the Lord, and, if so ordained, that you yourself will one day be in a holy lifetime commitment to a faithful fantastic future consort in marriage.
My life has changed since my last message in March 2013. Later that year, I celebrated by 25th wedding anniversary with my wife Lindy. We began that day in Reno, Nevada, and ended up in the June snow of Crater Lake, Oregon. Life with Lindy was wonderful beyond description. Alas, in 2014, Lindy succumbed to cancer and gave up her ghost to reside in her heavenly dwelling place, leaving me still here on earth in shock, bewilderment, and in confusion as to how to proceed hence in life. Lindy was well loved by many as evident by more than 400 people attending the celebrations of life we held for her in both Georgia and Florida.
Lindy & I had planned to move to Florida in January 2015. We already had an old house that we were going to fix up and make our new abode as Lindy yearned for a warmer clime. I also had arranged to work remotely for my employer at the time, as I was a software engineer whose physical presence was not really essential.
However, I did not move during my time of mourning, as I was too overwhelmed by the whole situation. Eventually, I did try to get back in the swing of things, although things were, especially at first, awkward.
I soon found myself in need of travelling yet, I could not neglect Celery the cat in my absence. Lindy and I had once met a woman named Cindy through square dancing, and it just so happened that Cindy volunteered to feed my cat while I was away.
One thing led to another, and in 2016, the loving Cindy and I were married at the Hoschton United Methodist Church which is where we had originally met square dancing in their fellowship hall.
Cindy has proven herself fabulous and precious in her own way and right. Our life together has been full of many great experiences and common moments of enjoyment, and I look forward to many more years in contented companionship.
I don't really have anything else to add at the moment. Nothing else of significance has really changed from my previous letter which I include below for reference and suggest you read for my perspective on things in general.
It's hard to write a generic welcome to the world on the Internet, as the audience is bound to include friends, family, the curious, the stumble-uponers, my colleagues, my acquaintances, friends of friends and their friends. To all of these with a good heart, I bid welcome. To trespassers, exploiters, abusers, and others of malign intent, I reject your presence and ask you to leave.
I wrote my first web site in 1995, hosted by Compuserve. At the time, I was so excited about the web and its potential, that I was able to create so much in a spurt of inspiration. This website today is not really changed all that much from that first site, as the novelty of the web has waned and I am not so excited as I was 18 years ago.
Although I do make updates from time to time, the updates are few and far between. I don't go blatantly advertising this web page around to my friends they'd think I was far nerdier than they already do. (Just a note about society: being a nerd doesn't make one near of a social outcast nowadays as it did when I was younger.)
The topics on my web page are not necessarily the ones that are the most important to me, but they give hints. If you look at my favourite links page, you might see a little into my mind. You can read my life summary (résumé) or read about some old plays I've acted in.
But it's hard to say things that are most precious. I love and appreciate God tremendously, but people have so many conceptions and misconceptions about who God really is, that I feel most comfortable talking or writing to people about God individually or in small groups. I once told a friend making a website of people's testimonies of their experiences with God that I couldn't really contribute mine because of the necessary intimacy impossible to a web audience, and he posted my e-mail rejecting him as my testimomy for the world to see. (I have decided it's OK, and I am certainly not ashamed.)
I hope that you enjoy my website and are informed or humoured by its contents.
If you'd like me to address something or another within the realm of suitable content, ask, and I'll see what I can do.
Thank you for visiting. I bid you grace and peace.