my life

 Breaking down my life into time segments.

as a little kid played with other kids and enjoyed playing with toys and playing with our family pets. 

My first real passion was origami. That happened in the 5th grade. had finished all the material for the 5th grade and had a couple of weeks at the end of the year with nothing to do. So the teacher gave me an origami book and said here do this. It was one of those things that was life changing, in small ways.

Somewhere around the 5th or 6th grade the system became convinced that was above average in intelligence, Probably becoming a scientist or technically oriented professional. It probably came from standardized tests. could finish most of my school work easier than the other kids. It wasn't completely boring, but it was easy to get done and have extra time left over.

Unfortunately, being above average did not equate to being a super genius. And for some reason had a huge understated ego. So throughout high school, college, and for about 10 years of my professional career set about repeatedly to prove was super incredible at something, only to turn out relatively average. This was a harsh realization in my early thirties. It changed my entire focus on life. Above average intelligence just means you're above average, that's all it means. So you can solve problems faster, and take tests better, but that doesn't equate to doing some super genius thing or repeatedly doing things way better than everybody else. And if you think about it half the people on the planet have to be above average and the other half have to be below average. How many people are exactly average? We use terms like, he's just an average Joe, or she seems pretty average, but average is some theoretical Middle point which almost no one is. And then there's the issue of, we're all better and worse at different things. Some people can be super geniuses at one thing and dolts at something else. Anyway.

Around age 11 became a Christian. This was the biggest decision in my life and definitely affected my decision making from that point on.

At 22 graduated from college and got a job at an aerospace company. stayed there and basically failed for 18 years. It was one of the most traumatic and saddest experiences of my life. basically left there a failure. It was a job and wasn't any good at it.

At age 28 got married. So if you just look at those numbers it was sort of somewhere in the middle of that failed career. But my marriage went on for 33 years.

At around age 40 quit the aerospace company and started bouncing around at several different high-tech computer companies. was a professional computer programmer, and they were in reasonably high demand. So this is going to sound sort of strange but my take on computer programmers is there four types:

• Wannabes - should quit
  
• The best - team players
  
• The best of the best - 1 in 100 (ME)
  
• The best of the best of the best - 1 in a 1000
  

was the third category. In my lifetime I've met maybe three people in the fouth category. I've met hundreds of people in the second category. And met a fair number in my category. You meet a whole bunch of wannabes that should quit and sell cars or something.

So from age 40 until retired worked hard as a computer programmer, made a reasonable living, and managed to stay married.

At around age 60 things changed radically. My wife became very ill, knew she was near death. She decided one solution was to divorce me. After the divorce she died. At that point got fired or retired, quit working.

So that pretty much sums it up. have a short list of things that have done over the years that showed creativity but never turned into anything. Anything's possible, but at this point I'm basically not just headed for the locker room but have left the locker room and the stadium for the last time.

Jesus has always been there for me. Guiding me, helping me along. And I'm very thankful.

If you would be interested in hearing about some of the interesting things worked on you can contact at :

scratchwiththechickens@gmail.com

scratchwiththechickens@gmail.com