I’m an experienced (in other words, old) telecommunications engineer of 30+ years and father to 5 boys and 5 girls (that’s right, 10 children). As of this writing (December 2021), I now have eight grandsons and four granddaughters and am looking forward to many more of both (two arriving in 2022).

I graduated from Lafayette High School in 1980 and the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now University of Louisiana-Lafayette) with a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1984, having lived in Lafayette, LA all of my life up to that point. I then started working for Bell-Northern Research (BNR) in Richardson, TX as a telecommunications software engineer and, although the name of the company has changed several times, I’m still working the same job. BNR became Northern Telecom, which became Nortel, then Nortel Networks (with the acquisition of Bay Networks), which went bankrupt. Today, the company is Ericsson, who bought Nortel’s wireless division, and it’s been 35 years.

I met my wife, Margaret, best friend of my sister, during a difficult divorce. More than a year later we started talking, which led to more talking and by the end of that year we were married on Christmas Eve.  It’s now been 2 wonderful years of a happiness that I didn’t know even existed. We live on a 30-acre farm that I’ve owned since 1998 in a home that I had a large hand in designing.

I like to try my hand at lots of things, so I end up doing lots of stuff that others hire out for. I maintain and repair my own cars, equipment, appliances, etc., and I had a significant role in the construction of our house.  After a flooding event following the thawing from a major freeze earlier this year, we’re in the process of repairing the damage and taking the opportunity to renovate the entire house.  With the disruption of the supply chain, due to the pandemic panic, it’s proving to be a much longer process than anticipated (perhaps I can post an update next year).

I’m also somewhat of a connoisseur, so I tend to explore, rather than merely experience, new areas of food, drink, etc. I’ve collected about a hundred root beers looking for the special ones (I like Virgil’s) and discovered ginger beer along the way. My favorite ginger beer is Blennheim Ginger Ale (both the gold and red) and other notables are Reed’s Ginger Brew (both the Extra and Premium) and Fever Tree Ginger Beer. My next endeavor was wine and this has transitioned to spirits and beer. I like red wine, especially Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Bordeaux, and also venture into dessert wines (Tokaji is my favorite). It took a while for me to become interested in beer, but I’ve become obsessed with craft beer and have tried nearly 3,000 distinct ones.  I prefer sour/wild ales, IPAs, porters, stouts and venture out into American and Belgian strong ales as well. I greatly enjoy sipping on all kinds of distilled spirits, whether it be whisk(e)y, brandy or mezcal, and I still dabble in the first spirit that I explored – rum. I’ve play around with mixed drinks, especially those involving citrus juices, but I’m more of a straight sipper.  When I do mix a drink, then it’s typically an Old Fashioned or Manhattan (aside from the occasional White Russian, since it was my first drink ever).  Recently, I’ve discovered that I particularly like a Sazerac and will seek to perfect my own version in the near future.

Finally, I’m a gadget guy. I like electronics and I play around with computers a lot. I’m a big Apple fan, dating back to the original Macintosh and I’ve never owned a Windows PC. I’ve dabbled in web development as well, learning HTML/CSS, Perl and some PHP in the process. I administer my own site and have done so for many organizations that I’ve been involved with. My next experience should be with iOS (iPhone and iPad) and I’ve already waited far too long to get started on this one.

Well, that’s me in a nutshell. I hope my miscellaneous ramblings are beneficial to someone.