I originally wrote this just before I turned 50 in 2023. But in the end, I didn’t post it so it sat lost and forgotten in my Obsidian notes.

51 Facts about me at 50.

  • I was once in a boy’s choir when I was very young.

  • I learned to swim.

  • I went fishing in lakes and creeks - a lot.

  • I was a boy scout.

  • I swam in the Rio Grande river between Texas and Mexico.

  • I learned to drive.

  • I worked at Burger King as my first real job.

  • I worked for an oil company cleaning rigs with a horrible hot soap and diesel emulsion.

  • In high school, I learned how to change the brakes of a Ford pickup truck in under 90 seconds, and then competed at a state level in auto mechanics.

  • I worked as an auto mechanic.

  • I graduated High School

  • I once took a sneaky trip to Mexico with a friend.

  • I joined the United States Air Force.

  • I learned how to load both conventional and nuclear bombs and missiles on F-111 jets.

  • I moved to England for 2 years.

  • I swam in the Atlantic ocean.

  • I got married and managed to stay that way for 29 years and counting.

  • I won a bomb loading (Lodeo) competition in the United States Air Force and I still have the engraved clock to prove it.

  • I once saw 6 live nuclear bombs being put into a plane.

  • I moved to Fayetteville, North Carolina.

  • I learned how to load bombs, missiles, and the cannon of F-16 jets.

  • I wore hot and oppressive “chem-suits” and gas masks for hours at a time during Air Force training exercises but had the times of my life.

  • I was stationed in Saudi Arabia for a short time, where, aside from loading live bombs, I got to drive my squadron back and forth to the flight line in a bus through wild checkpoints.

  • I swam in the Gulf of Mexico.

  • I moved back to England for 28 years and counting.

  • I worked as a roofer for a short time, then as a labourer on building sites.

  • I had my first (and hopefully last) major operation.

  • I learned a number of computer programming languages.

  • I worked as a software engineer in Ireland.

  • I slept rough several times on the streets of Dublin out of necessity - and to this day I still donate to soup kitchens and homelessness charities.

  • I learned how to administer databases.

  • I learned how to build, configure, and deploy computer systems in data centres.

  • I visited France and Spain for work for a few days.

  • I went on holiday with my family to Egypt, Florida, Greece, Lanzarote, Rome, New York, New Orleans, Vegas, Cyprus, and Scotland

  • I have volunteered as a trustee and IT systems administrator for 3 charities/nonprofits.

  • I have swam in the Red Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Aegean Sea.

  • I road tripped with the family across the western United States from Nevada to Texas, and across both Louisiana and Texas going the other way.

  • I watched a sunset at the Grand Canyon on one side with a full rainbow behind me.

  • I raised two strong, independent, and kind daughters.

  • I visited Poland for a friend’s funeral.

  • I learned how to be a DevOps engineer and build computer systems in the cloud with code.

  • I built my own gaming computer from individual parts.

  • I have owned almost every Nintendo console ever made, a Sony Playstation 2, 3, 4 and 5 - but never any kind of Xbox.

  • I started my own company (twice technically).

  • I have grown my own fruit and vegetables for over a decade.

  • I gained financial comfort and bought most every material thing I ever dreamed about getting - aside from a guitar.

  • I learned that true happiness doesn’t come from any of that.

  • I graduated from University and gained my degree in Environmental Management and Technology.

  • I caught Covid at least once.

  • I broke multiple ribs in a bicycle crash.

  • I thrived in lockdown.

from “Ulysses” by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
‘T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.