I am a man just trying to be a good Christian by staying active in my church and learning to love God and my neighbors a little more each day.
I love to travel, play drums and keyboards, compose music, read, program, design and build custom microprocessor based electronic circuits. I express my artistic side through my music and programming. I’ve been involved in prison ministries, where I have been blessed to be able to play piano and drums with my incarcerated brothers.
My wife and I have dreamed of being able to work remotely and travel around America in our RV. That dream life is finally happening. Starting in early 2021, we took some test trips to see if I could be effective working from locations without good Wifi. We started with locations that were only an hour or less from home. That way if things didn’t work, I could always commute to work or home to take care of my work responsibilities. We also setup multiple cellular plans with high data limits. This all worked out great.
I feel almost guilty saying this, but the COVID pandemic helped make our dream a reality. Because of it, everybody started working from home, and that established WFH as a viable situation. So for most of 2020 I worked from my home in Austin. And now, starting in 2021, we expect to work from home wherever our RV happens to be parked.
I’m currently an iOS developer with H-E-B in Austin, Texas. I love this job and this company! I consider myself semi-retired, and am working because I enjoy it. Well, that plus I like to spend a lot of money on charities and travel.
If you live in Texas and aren’t happy with the company you work for, I highly recommend taking a look at H-E-B. It’s a company that gives back to its community, values its employees, and is a great place to work. H-E-B calls its employees “partners” because it shows respect and, well, we all are partners.
God has blessed me greatly. I’ve had a lot of really fun jobs over my lifetime so far. I’ve been laid off three times, and each time lead to something even better.
I’ve been in and out of management. I’m pretty good at it, but have always found myself missing having my hands on projects. I love immersing myself in programming, especially working with a talented team of other engineers. In my 40-some years of working in the technology area I have learned that it is important to find what you like doing, and then do it. Avoid taking on jobs because of the money or title or prestige associated with the job. One should usually look forward to going to work everyday.
We’ve tried a lot of other things. I’ve done some part time consulting and programming. At one point were worked part time at a KOA campground as workampers. God has provided a lot of opportunities, and it has been fun doing a lot of different things. What a blessing this has been.
In 2010 we switched from living in a bricks-and-mortar house to living full-time in an RV. Although this was initially a financial decision, the opportunities that are opening up with this new mobile lifestyle are almost overwhelming. We absolutely love it. We really like the idea of being able to move our home and live other places whenever we want. We hope to become winter Texans, escaping the heat each summer.
In 2022 we spent a month in Windsor, Ontario, getting away from the Austin heat and visiting with family living there. We found a great RV resort there, and are thinking seriously about becoming “summer Canadians”.
I’m currently having a blast designing and programming custom IoT devices in my RV. The 12 volt system simplifies this. I’m writing C++ microcontroller code, JavaScript Alexa skills, and Swift iOS iPhone and iPad apps. I love to design, build, and program things.
Shelley and I have 4 children (Brian, Aaron, Jessie, Jackie) that are grown and out of the house, and we have 4 grandchildren (Ethan, Gillian, Lacey, and JT). We are currently sponsoring 4 children (Joshua, Phoebe, Annety, and Stephen) in Kenya through World Vision’s child sponsorship program. We were blessed to be able to visit Kenya to meet them in 2018.
We have enjoyed traveling. We’ve been on a mission trip to Kenya, and toured Israel and Egypt. We’ve driven a Goldwing motorcycle all across the USA, and SCUBA dived in the Dominican Republic and Bonaire. Our travels have taken us from our home base in Texas across the USA to both coasts, into Canada, and many National Parks including Yellowstone, and Yosemite. The later is my favorite place on Earth.
We are three time breast cancer survivors.
Life is great! It is amazing where God will lead you if you can put your fears aside long enough to follow where He leads.
Thank you Jesus for this amazing life that you’ve given us.