Thank you all for the welcome.
To answer a couple of questions, no, I did not achieve my engineering degree. Graduated from a two year school with a 3.95 gpa and went on to a four year school but didn't have enough sense to drop back to basic chemistry when I should have and washed myself out of school. My knuckleheadedness being my best asset and worst enemy and a constant companion throughout life.
Went on to driving truck and eventually bought my own truck and tried to make a go of it but also failed at that. It may have been the shortest lived trucking company ever. I did however also eventually ended up swallowing my pride and and sat for my master plumbers and master HVAC/refrigeration licenses which I passed both successfully in one testing. The plumbing and heating business is up and going again though it's been a faltering start to say the least. My heart isn't really in it anymore so ehhh... I severed ties with my Dad who was my reason for going into that trade to begin with and it proved to be no more effective at bonding us together than anything else I ever tried to form a relationship with him. Not trying to be too personal, just stating simple facts.
So this brings me to the second question, the backstory. In the space of a couple of years, I stumbled on this trade, something I had always had a yearning to learn and to at least have some basic skills at, almost by accident. I bought an old Putnam lathe for what ostensibly was a personal whim, to cut drums from solid logs. Eventually I learned I could buy and use the old machine tools, of which in New England are practically falling out of trees, at a price which made it sensible to acquire and learn on them at my own pace and ability. Well, if one machine is good then a thousand is better, right? This might provide you with a insight into my personality. So I went all in and I went in deep. I stepped on some toes in my enthusiasm and I lashed out when anyone tried to pour some water on it. After all, the important thing was to just save the machines, period. That's how my mind works anyway. In the midst of my flaming new love affair with these old tools, came a few major life shifts. The three primary ones being a relocation back to Iowa, the realization that I was wasting my life to earn the respect and affirmation of a father who divorced his children the same time he divorced his wife(I only disclose this part because to say I was pissed off is the understatement of the century), and the desperate attempt to salvage a relationship with a daughter with whom I very much did not want to ever, ever feel like I did with my own father. Of smaller import was the dismantling of my business in Rhode Island and finally learning to accept that it was just my job, and it was only my business, not my personhood being tossed in the trash. I had a lot on my plate. So with my charming personality in full bloom, those people who dared to try and quench my obsession and be a little more PRACTICAL, more often than not, felt like a personal attack and I responded in kind.
Then came the cherry on the cake and I thought of throwing in the towel, not just on the tools, but all of it. It went so far as me putting the tools on here to be given away rather than me just hoarding them to myself, even though most of the tools I had, no one wanted in the first place. While some of the tools had some takers, I quickly realized I would be left with the unwanted ones still and back to square one almost without any means to repair or restore them. I had made a hollow threat to scrap the unwanted ones but I couldn't carry that out any more than chopping off my arm. So I withdrew the offer and what a person might expect to happen, did. To some extent anyway. After that I withdrew myself from the forum for obvious reasons. I even went as far as asking to be deleted from the forum.
Giving up on the tools is akin to giving up on myself. I'm stuck with them and they're stuck with me, for better or for worse. As long as He hasn't given up on me, though I'm not sure some days, I won't give up on the machines. Yes, there are many things much more important than tools (like people), but to me, this is a personally important and while completely not practical on so many levels it's not funny, I don't have a choice but to keep trying.
So that's the skinny on it all, maybe more personal than a guy should be on the old interwebs, but it's the honest truth as best as I know it. I'm not perfect nor ever claimed to be, just doing the best I can with what I've been dealt. Was precious little to start with and have been blessed with far more than I ever deserved since. Many of those blessings have been the people I've met along the way, even the ones I've butted heads with.
Welcome or no, I hope we all have a Happy New Year.
P.S. Demon, that was priceless.
