As a small boy I always wanted to know how things work, or what made them tick. I would take apart just about anything I could get my hands on and, I must admit, the first few things probably never went back together or if they did, they didn't go back together right.  After each thing I took apart I learned how things worked, how they were put together, so that I could put them back together and they would work. I remember my favorite toys were building toys such as girders and panels, where you had little replicas of steel girders that you could put together and square semi-square could be put together to make buildings such as skyscrapers. The panels would resemble windows and brick-and-mortar and various façades of buildings. They would snap onto the exterior of the girders to make the outside of the buildings. I had an uncle who was a mechanic that could fix just about anything. He inspired me to be something greater than what I was because I didn't get the encouragement from the people around me as I did from him.  Watching him fix cars was magical to me. How did he know how to fix them, what wizard powers did he have?

I figured out that I had a talent that few people had. I could read instructions and make things. I finally got to where I could look at something and either make a replica or fix it. It was kind of a connection between my brain and my hands, if I could feel it, I could understand it. It was almost like I could think with my hands better than I could think with my head. I grew patience for mechanical things and technology. The downside of this was that I grew impatient with people and things that I found frustrating, about what most people call normal life. I was always happiest when I could tear something apart and put it back together and it would work better. I remember I had three or four bicycles that were no longer working for one reason or another and I had a little bike that we called Stingrays back in my day. They had big slick rear tire with the normal size tire in the front. I looked at the parts of some of the older bicycles that I had that were 16 inch bikes and the tires were much bigger than those of the Stingray. I had always liked the fancy choppers that the motorcyclists had back in that day, so I thought I could use the front spoke of the bigger bike if it was interchangeable and if it fit in the front collar of the yoke of the smaller bike.

Without another thought I took both of the front yokes off of both bikes, taking the handlebars out, taking the handlebar shaft out and then undoing the collar, sliding it out and taking the bearings from one to the other and seeing if they fit, seeing if the bearings fit the shaft of the front spoke and they did. That made the front stand about 8 inches higher than it did before, even though it would accommodate a much larger circumference tire and rim, I left the smaller rim from the Stingray on it, which gave it more of a chopper look.

I don't want you to think that I had finished my alterations of this bicycle yet because I had not. I noticed that the sprocket was bigger on the 16 inch bicycle and the length of the rods from the pedal sprocket to the peddles was a few inches longer as well. This meant that it would change the gear ratio from the output of the chain to the smaller sprocket on the rear tire giving it more speed and torque. That's right, you've got it. I took it apart to see if it would fit and it did. I spent probably about the next 10 years of my life working on cars, in one form of another, helping my buddy Rick with any project he had with his racecar until I moved to Canada and married my Ursula. I had decided that even though I loved doing automotive electrical work, probably more than anything else I had ever done, when I worked for Tom Bell Chevrolet and Tim Fuss Chevrolet in Memphis. I decided to give it up and I went into auto parts and being a service writer, which I was also good at both of those jobs as well.

When I moved back to the US in the Smoky Mountains, my wife and I both changed professions again. I went into retail and she went into managing a hotel. I longed to have that creative sense that I had lost. I couldn't help myself. I wanted to be creative. It was a need-it was something that I had to do. I loved working on my computer and touching up photographs and working on videos. The computers that I was working with were commercially bought.  My first was a Sony back in 1999, but it just didn't have the power or speed or memory to do what I wanted to do. So my next one was an HP which was much faster and quite a bit better, but it too lacked what I needed. You guessed it,  I decided to build my own computer. It was the best decision I have ever made. I now have a six core, 3.7 GHz, 16 GB of DDR3 RAM, an Asus motherboard and an HD eyenfinity AMD 6770 graphics card. By the way, the graphics card is the weakest link, but for what I'm doing that graphics card is more than enough at this point. I also have 12.5 TB of storage for movies, pictures, stories or whatever I want.

As with everything that I do in my life, I find I have a fear of failing, so it takes me a long time to build up the courage to get started on any project I start. The only thing I think that I ever went head over heels deep into as far as a project was concerned with the building of our log house. I did have a contractor, but I worked on every single aspect of this house. I did 100% of the plumbing and electrical and they passed inspection and are still working some 27 years later. I put in all the windows and doors. I helped set the logs and even helped pour the foundation. So, to all the naysayers, including my father, to my abilities and intelligence, I have to tell you that it may have taken me years to find out, but I am as intelligent as anyone else. I tell you this with the frustrations of failure at times but I never gave up because I know this now, if a man built it, I can build it myself, if any man can do it, I sure as heck can do it myself. I now sell electronics and I guess they keep me around there because I know more about computers than they do, but the thing I love the most about what I do right now is I help people.

Entertainment is important to people that don't have a whole lot in this world and I can show them things that can get them entertainment for very little money. I can sell them computers that will do the things that they need to make themselves happy. I have helped people with computer problems fix their computers. It's not that I'm a computer genius, because I'm not. I can't write code and I don't want to. I can't reprogram their computer any more than they can, but if the worst scenario is true, I can still show them how to get their computer back to the point that it was when it was brand-new. I've taught people how to get viruses off of their computer, how to keep their computers clean and running smoothly.

It's not fixing the machine that makes me happy. It's the grandmother that can look at the picture she has stored on her computer of her grandchildren that she thought she had lost, thanking me with a smile. It was the lady at Christmas time that wanted somehow for her husband to be able to see the old Western movies that he once had enjoyed as a child and wanted to see now, but because of their bills with cancer and his surgeries, they didn't have the money to pay these ridiculously high cable bills. I showed her how, if they kept their Internet access, she could access at least five or more old Western channels on the Roku box and we both cried, her with the joy of being able to give her husband, in his remaining years, something he loves and me because it was a blessing from God.

I see so many people every day that are so angry and hateful and rude because they are miserable. I refuse to live that way. When I was brought into this world I had nothing and when I leave it I will have nothing.

So, I no longer am going to worry about it, what I have no control over, because I got my abilities in my brain and the knowledge through my hands from He who can fix anything. I am so grateful for the people and the things that pass through my life giving me wisdom and keeping my spirit true and clear because it is He that gives me the courage every day through the pain and the fear to carry on.