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OK, here's my sound byte auto-biography. This is just a big picture summary. None of the juicy details here. Maybe I will add all the good stuff later but for now here's the summary of My Life!

 


The Big Picture: (just some of the highlights)
Last (minor) update 5/14/18

1953 Started… Born in Aurora, Illinois at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital 12:02pm Thu, 6/11/1953. The hospital has been converted to Fox Knoll Retirement Community < The link has a photo.

Moved to Downey California in 1957 (age 4)
Back to Aurora (1958 – 1960)

1960 Moved to Wheeling, Illinois

Grade school – Walt Whitman
Junior High – Went to Jack London 7th grade then Oliver Wendell Holmes 8th grade

Memories:
Camped with parents a lot. Enjoyed mini-bike and our motor boat (and water skiing)
Played Trumpet / Band concerts and contests / got lots of Awards

1967 Wheeling High School

Memories:
Girl Friends Vicki (first girlfriend (sort of)) and Tanya (dated about 3 or 4 years)
Virginia Beach Music Festival trips
Playing at Bears games (Played pre-game and half-time shows in the marching band each year)
Oak Lawn Jazz Band contests

Played in Backup Band for Strawberry Alarmclock (Incense Peppermint), Corky Segal (previously Siegal-Schwall) and Rhinoceros (Apricot Brandy) at The CELLAR in Arlington Heights, Il. Our band was called The Huns, later renamed to Oz.

I knew that the Cream played at the Cellar but I just looked this up online and saw that The Who also played there on one of their first visits to the US. So I actually played on the same stage as the Who and the Cream in their early days!

1971 Wheeling HS to NIU

Graduated HS and received Music scholarship for Northern Illinois University (after audition)

1971-72 and 1972-73 school years – Majored in Music at NIU - I loved playing music (trumpet was my main instrument at that time) and I learned a lot in those years. Unfortunately, at that time, I saw getting a degree in music as mostly only good for teaching music or playing in a symphony so I never did finish and get the degree (I regretted that later).

My music scholarship covered tuition but I still had student loans for room and board and the loans were starting to add up. I paid them off eventually (in full) but in retrospect it would not have been that bad just to finish the last 2 years.

Did factory work and truck driving part time in the summers
Broke up with Tanya around 1973.

1973 Truck Driving – Full time (one semester) - My dad owned 2 trucks, a tractor trailer and a straight truck and had his own business that operated off of my uncle's ICC permit - Able Freight Lines in Aurora which was a much larger trucking company. I drove the straight truck for him at various times in my life. This was local Chicagoland deliveries not over the road stuff.

I really enjoyed the time with my dad and my time Truckin! Plus I can legitimately perform and write Truck Drivin Songs now!

1974 Returned to NIU for one semester as Psychology major (then dropped out again) back to Truck Driving – Full time (in 1975 - After being a Rock Star (in my own mind) in Grinnell Iowa, below).

1/1/75Trip to Hawaii! (on free United Airline passes from mom). I'm not 100% sure about the year but I know I was there for New Year's Eve (could have been NY 1974 or 1976). I remember that they had fireworks, like the 4th of July. My plane fare cost me $24 round trip and my mom also got 1/2 price on a hotel close to Waikiki beach in Honolulu!

1975 Summer – Moved to Grinnell Iowa for a short time to play in a Rock band with good friend Jeff Farr and the owner of  one of the only bars in town. Was fun but the band did not make it and we moved back to Illinois.

1975 – 1978 - Misc. Jobs full time… Trucking, Fork Lift Warehouse work, Northwest Dist. Magazine distributor, C  Bruno & Son Music warehouse – Met Tom Shelly. Tom was an excellent singer and musician and we made some great tapes and played some live shows that people really liked.

1978 – 1980Worked at Shure Brothers, Went to Harper Jr. College. Warehouse forklift work at Shure brothers. Took computer classes at Harper - This was an important turning point in my life. I liked programming and was pretty good at it too.

Lived with Sean Harvey at Mallard Lake Apartments. Used to go to Fox Lake a lot on weekends for dirt bike riding and partying with Ron Tranelis. (1978) – Played music with Tom Shelly – Acoustic Rock Guitar music, with the Smokin and Drinkin Band and recorded the Sundown tapes. Tom also played and sang with our Headcrash band later on.

1980First programming jobs – I actually took a cut in pay to go from Fork Lift warehouse work to my first programming jobs (on DEC computers). I could not believe that people would actually pay me to write programs which seemed like playing games to me. :-) 

A few years later, I doubled that rookie salary so all was good. I worked at J Baker and Associates where I re-met Dale - Then later at LIOCS – with Dale, Mark Sharp and Nancy Mitchell– Also started our Kentucky Derby trips at this time.

1982 Lost job at LIOCS, went on first Rocky Mountain trip to Oregon.

I went to Oregon to see my old friend (and old college roommate) Ron Tranelis. I made this road trip a major adventure rather than just taking the direct route there. First I drove to Colorado, drove up Pikes Peak, then to the Great Sand Dunes and down to Durango. From there I went north through the Rockies and saw a lot of great stuff and visited some national parks. I went to Glacier Nat. Park, Yellowstone and the Tetons on the way back from Oregon.

1982 – 1983 Worked at Moore Business Forms Met Dara (First Date January 7, 1984). This was right after I left Moore since I was nervous about dating girls that I worked with at that time.

Lived at “Arlington Manor” (house on a couple of acres on Chestnut Street in Arlington Heights). We had some big, multi-kegger parties there with our house band called Headcrash (us) playing in the background. The Cook County cops even joined us for at least one party (uninvited - how rude).

12/1983 – 5/1996 - Worked at Digital - Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) was the 2nd largest computer company in the world when I started there (second to IBM). DEC no longer exists and most people these days do not even know who they were although they made big contributions to the computer industry and are now part of many other huge computer companies.

1985-1988 - Vacations with Dara (pre kids) - Dara and I took some memorable trips and had some great vacations during this time frame. We went to Colorado (met Dale there) on one trip. We went to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone (my second visit there) another time. We also drove to California (Dara, Yuppie and me in August 1987) to visit Dale and went to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon on the way.

1985Bought house on MacArthur in Palatine ($78.5K) Saved and saved and saved and I was finally able to buy my first house!

1/1/1987 Mom Died (New Years Day, Age 60) - This was completely unexpected. Sudden heart attack they say. Very devestating and life changing.

1989Dara and I got Married – Trip to Europe! For our honeymoon we went to England, Amsterdam, Belgium and Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Northern Italy and Switzerland. Wow, what a great trip and life experience!

1990 Casey is born!! - after a bike ride to a Deluxury concert at Palatine Band shell. Casey's new life and our new life started at this time. Yes, he was born the legitimate 9 months after we were married! :-) Casey may have been created in Europe though, possibly Switzerland.

1993 Corinne is born in our Caravan! It was a mad dash to the hospital, speeding, running red lights. I made it to the emergency drop off area where Corinne made her appearance in the front seat of our van. Her middle name is Cara, short for Caravan.

1996 – 1998DEC Layoff - After about 13 years at DEC they finally let me go. I could have stayed if I wanted to move to Texas and they offered me a job in Boston at one point but I guess I am just too much of an Illinois boy. How could I leave all this! :-)

After DEC I went through many Misc jobs and had some out of work time (jobs: Caremark (as employee), HMI (bought house on Peregrine), Household Finance, Coram, ComCoTec) – Also Started songwriting.

1997 Bought house on Peregrine - Bought August, 1997 but moved in in May, 1998. The previous owners rented it back from us until they were ready to move and while we were still selling our old house. At one time, when I was between jobs, I remembered how crazy people thought I was when I told them that I owned 2 houses and did not have a job! :-)

1998Sold house on MacArthur (5/98 for $144k)
Moved into house on Peregrine (5/98). My Dad Died (5/16/1998).

I got my first real Windows PC in 1998 (with Win98). Prior to this I had now obsolete DEC personal computers (was still loyal to my old company). I was also determined to become a songwriter at this time and to get a song published. This is when I got real serious about writing songs and wrote and recorded most of my original songs (so far).

Late 1990s, Early 2000s - Wisconsin Trips - I wanted to mention the trips and vacations that we took to Wisconsin quite a bit when our kids were young. I bought a pop-up camper and we camped in camp grounds a few times but our favorite vacations were in Wisconsin, usually at "Broken Pines Campgrounds" which was my niece and family's place in Cashton, Wis.

These were our favorite vacations back in those years. My nieces kids were close to our kids ages and our kids could do cool country stuff that they could never do in the boring suburbs.

1998-2001 Worked for AIC - As a consultant (contract programmer) First at Rycoff Sexton (later US Foods) then at Caremark 1999-2001. Went back to Caremark one last time as a consultant with a different company (Jerry Hirshel, 2/2002-5/2002).

10/2002 – 1/2003 Danzas with AIC - Unemployed Summer 2001 to 2002 (9 months) 6/2002-10/2002 (4 months) 1/2003-10/2003 (9 months)

Jan/Feb 2003 Started doing affiliate websites - Starting with my bike site. Affiliate websites promote and sell products for other companies (online) and get commissions for the online sales.

10/2003Fishing Derby to Danzas, DHL consulting job! -The lady in charge of the IT department at Danzas (now DHL) saw me and Corinne at the Fishing Derby that they had at Harper College. She knew me from my previous time at DHL (with AIC) and this prompted her to invite me back and allowed me to come back as an independent contractor (self-employed) and the rest is history. So I always call that place by the lake at Harper my Lucky Fishing Hole!

2007 Trip to Grand Tetons and Yellowstone with Family and Tirandazis. This was a great trip and the start of our family road trip vacations (as you can see below).

2008Trip to Daytona Florida with family. Since this was a road trip, we also hit Mammoth Cave on the way there. We went in the off season and got a good price on a great hotel right on the beach in Daytona. Did Jet Skis and Para sailing too.

2009 Trip to Colorado with family. For this one we actually flew to Denver then rented a car and drove all over Colorado. We hit Rocky Mountain National Park, rented ATVs, took Hwy 550 through Ouray, Silverton and into Durango, climed the Great Sand Dunnes, Stayed in Manitou one night and went to The Garden of the Gods (maybe some other stuff too...)

6/2011 Let go from DHL, Started Serious Website Business with Fitness Equipment - My bike website was very profitable for about 1 1/2 years before Google changed their algorithm. I really liked the website business and it supported our family very well for almost 2 years. This was probably my all time favorite "job" in my working years. There was a lot of variety designing web pages, taking and posting photos and videos, the art of marketing products in writing, and, of course, working from home on a totally flexible schedule.

2012Casey Graduates from Western

6/2014Went back to DHL for last Contract… As I mentioned above, my affiliate websites were VERY profitable for a couple of years (2011, 2012) and I loved that business. Unfortunately, I lost a lot of my traffic and the website profits were way down in 2013 and 2014. So when DHL asked me to come back for another contract (my last as it turned out) I really needed the work and income so that came at a very good time.

2015 Corinne Graduates from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio

6/2017 Retired from Full Time Programming at DHL - After working for approximately 40 years with 37 years as a Programmer or Software Developer and the last 14 years fully self-employed, as a contract programmer and website publisher, I finally dropped out of the rat race. My last day worked at DHL was 5/31/2017. Click here for my latest Working ROI updates.

2017-2018 - Enjoying Retirement - Enjoying and adjusting to Retirement. Have done a lot of bike riding in the warm weather, took a few trips to Wisconsin to visit with family and took a trip to Tennessee and North Carolina to see my old friends (from HS and beyond). Also updated my recording equipment and have started playing music and recording again.

2019-2020 Moved Out and Divorced - Unfortunately, our marriage did not last until death do us part. I moved out of our house on March 30, 2019 and into an Extended Stay Hotel in April. Our divorce was finalized on October 20, 2020.

2021-2022 Pandemic, HS Reunion, Lungs - Well it's been kind of a tough year with the Covid Pandemic and my Lung issues (IPF, Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis) but I did have a good time at my 50 year class reunion (before I done got pneumonia and consequently hyponatremia (low blood sodium)).

2022 - 69th Year In Progress!

More later... (I hope...)


Related Links:

The Places I have Lived.

The Places where I have Worked.

The Cars and Vehicles that I have owned.

Robbieism - A view of life and spiritual existence

 



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