The beginning

Years ago I realized that the place to start is not at the beginning, but, rather, from where you're at currently. So I'm going to start this from just a short time back, less than a week, I think. But, a bit of history first.

Over the past year and a half of official unemployment I've been going through a process of discovery to learn what I want to do in the next big phase of my life. Where I'm coming from is a long period of working over the internet from home, largely isolated from social interaction. A decision to change that isolation led to my buying a home in Fitchburg, Wisconsin in 2002. As I phased out of online work, I accepted a job with a steady stream of coworkers, which was good... until the bottom dropped out of the economy. Since I was one of the last in, I was also among the first out. For better or for worse, since so very many people have been in the same situation, I've been able to accept extended unemployment benefits and have learned to live extremely modestly.

Soon after I bought the house, I began taking an interest in the community around me, particularly in the Allied Drive area. Over time I became involved in many of the different aspects of the community, participating in the Allied Area Task Force, neighborhood associations, area service agencies, community gardening in the park which is my back yard, and others.

After a while, many people started suggesting that I do something more with my interests in the community, and, earlier this week, I was talking with folks at Fitchburg City Hall about some ideas, and they ended up suggesting that I run for Alder since apparently the current Alder has been unsure whether he'll run again. (Still need to grab a few minutes to try to catch him to confirm that, still a rumor at this point.) So, here I am, starting off in the blog-o-sphere so people can get to know me a bit more than they otherwise might.