Born in 1951, I grew from a premature 4 lb. 2 oz. baby to a strapping 6 foot, 290 lb. adult. (Some would argue the "adult" part, but it's chronological, not an indication of state of mind.) I grew up with a railroad running behind my home. The Indiana Harbor Belt, a very heavily trafficed transfer road, connects all the railroads that enter Chicago. I witnessed the last of steam and the rapid increase in the use of diesel motive power. Since the IHB is a transfer route, I was able to see a large variety of equipment from various road names. The LaGrange, Illinois, locomotive plant for EMD is just a few miles South of me, and I have observed a lot of new power eminating from there.

I liked the location that I grew up in, so when I had the opportunity, I purchased that home. This was probably a mistake, as the amount of "stuff" has grown to enormous proportions. I can now attest that entropy works, as my place has reached a state of critical mess!

By Day

My "real world" working hours are spent doing technical selling of System/390 and z/Series products for IBM in the Midwest (USA). My "specialty" areas are e-Commerce, OS/390, security, IP networking, complex system configuration, system performance and tuning, and capacity planning.

Other Times

In addition to information systems, I studied photography while in college, and considered that as a possible profession. At that time, one could do photography as a hobby, but not computing (unless you were rediculously wealthy!), so I decided to keep photography as a hobby and computing as my career. I still dabble from time-to-time with serious image making, and am moving forward with doing image editing and control on the computer...now that computers are affordable as a hobby and not just for work!

My love of railroading has not ebbed. As I write this, a string of empty coal hoppers is clattering behind the house. In the mid 1980's, I joined the Illinois Railway Museum as a volunteer. I've spent many hours there helping restore antique rail equipment into operating condition. A number of years were spent working with steam, where I qualified as an operator. I've since moved to working with diesel equipment, and often run the ex-CB&Q Nebraska Zephyr headed by the last remaining EMC E5, ex-CB&Q 9911A.