I won 2nd place 2 years in a row for the Odyssey kids magazine cover contest:-). And made the front page of the local paper for it. I won a bunch of shuttle mission patches, I still have them!
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Oh man, how cool!
One night I got a ping from an app to see the ISS. Went outside, looked up and there it was. It so happened that the great ship Atlantis had undocked 30 minutes before.
There they were both tracing the same trajectory across the sky, with (from my perspective) about 4 inches between them.
The hair on my neck and arms stood as I watched them all the way to the horizon. Magnificent! Iāll never forget it.
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I have sold about 10,000 self portraits in the form of the Guide to Understanding New Hampshire Expressions postcard and poster that I have posted elsewhere on the forums. Each postcard has 9 photos of me. To date, though, no one has stopped me in the street to say they recognize me.
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Iād recognize ya! 
Unless you smiled of courseā¦
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Seriously. Itās hard to get some trades in to do work. I just paid a company $300/hr for each of the 3 people who put in my new furnace. It was a rip & replace, no new plumbing or work above the basement level. Really frustrating because itās work I could have done but my wife would not let me 
She didnāt want to risk no heat in the winter or me hurting myself trying to move an 800 lb boiler. Retrospectively I agreed (at least about manhandling the boiler). Still hurt.
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Thank you! The honor was to serve. 
Beautiful shot of the Angels against Devilās Tower! Did you get to see them perform?
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I know the feeling. We had granite put in the kitchen and it took two guys all day to do it.
Word traveled around the neighborhood, "Look! Dave had someone else do something for him!"
Yes, could have, but it would have taken me 2 weeks - and she needs that kitchen every night. I have sentenced her to live in a construction zone enough times in our 38 years.
We just did our furnace also. $12k for a 98% efficent. I donāt think I would have tackled a boiler myself.
Wish I had one though. radiant floor heating is so good.
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Oil here. Oil boilers are only 83-85% efficient 
We donāt have gas on my part of the street so itād be a big tank in the back yard or stick with number 2 fuel oil.
I replaced the hot water coil a couple of times before scrapping that and putting in a remote Amtrol water heater - the coil would just corrode up due to the hard water I get from the ground 
So plumbing and boilers donāt bother me. Dragging an 800lb boiler across my frozen backyard alone would have been stupid - they had a really cool electric trolley/hand truck for it. I want one of those now
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In a āformer lifeā I taught High School English for just 2 years right after college. Iām so glad I taught because everything Iāve done since then is far easier by comparison. (Though, it is a curse to be a software engineer with that āred penā still in my hands. Grammar and spelling mistakes drive me crazy, and most techie types are notoriously error prone in those regards. Iāll take this moment to congratulate myself for never having corrected anyoneās grammar in this forum - especially when folks get āitsā and āitāsā confused - ahhhhhhh!)
Being a teacher DOES make you a super star. Thatās a truly difficult and important job. 
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For some reason, that reallycracked me up! Oh, so little we all knew then, that in addition to eyes in the backs of their heads (mostly mothers), they also had extra ears back there, too. Though our kids are all grownups now, we still occasionally hear the obscure story of something that they had actually been successful in keeping secret from us. But now, we only laugh.
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Someday, Iām really gonna make it big in the cutthroat world of competitive haikuā¦ somedayā¦
but, 'til then, Iām a code-slinger by day and a wanna-be artist by night, so I wrote myself a little haiku to celebrate that spirit:
it is not about
making great art ~itās about
art making life great
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One of those was in a care package from you and it is hilarious! The look with the plad shirt is perfect.
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I had a sixth grade teacher that changed my life.
Every kid in the class got straight Aās, even the screw-ups like me. He would engage the class with such enthusiasm it was infectious. That guy was like a big brother to all of us. Best teacher I ever saw, he ignited my intellect and my love of science!
Highest regard for teachers, they just need to get paid according to the value of their work.
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I came clean on a few incidents with my Mother after we had developed an adult relationship.
Such good laughs we had!
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oooohh, great video about that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkHqPFbxmOU
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No, never haveā¦just a photo from one of the many trophy casesā¦
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Back then it was frowned on then. For me, it was the idea of listening to what at the tine was taboo. 
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That was great! Thank you.
Back then my friend, it was common to teach leftyās to write with the right. Couldnāt do it.
I do remember the frown on her face as she snatched the pencil out of my hand and thrust it into my.right. Puzzled, I just ignored her and continued with the assignment. She flunked me.
I mention I flunked the first grade and people want to know - How do you flunk the first grade??
You grow up āway back in the 19āsā.
Took the shine right off of school when all of my friends moved on. 
Thatās one thing David, at our age we have seen a lot of myth and ignorance vaporize. I seriously enjoy this stage of my life. Unhurried, and guided by the counsel of the years. Itās the missing teeth and hair that bother me. 
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I failed my first spelling test because even though I spelled everything right I capitalized each word(we were told to start each new line with a capital).
Soured the whole school thing for me, lucky I had some GREAT teachers later on
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