I scribble words onto the screen, I try to capture with cameras the images I see, I look for beauty in everyday life. I’ve been a sailor, a project manager, a tech writer, a programmer, and now…
Since May 2016, I have been a vagabond in a Safari Condo Alto 1743 trailer. I started out with a 2015 Subaru Outback named Bella as my tow vehicle, and in 2020, I moved to a 2019 Honda Ridgeline. I’m based out of Gainesville, Florida.
The Longer Version…
I was born and raised in LA. Luck and timing after I graduated from college got me into a high-tech training program in San Jose. After two years, I wangled a cross-country transfer to Manhattan, where I worked for a year before realizing I didn’t want a big career, the house at the top of the hill, or an ordinary life. I gave up the job, the two-bedroom apartment and sold everything that didn’t fit into my tiny Toyota Corolla. I found adventure on a big wooden boat, the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. For five years, I made my living as a sailor, eventually earning a captain’s license (100-ton auxiliary sail) from the US Coast Guard. I even worked one summer on a windjammer out of Rockland, Maine,
I went back to the Hudson Valley, working for Marist College a while before I decided I had unfinished business with Manhattan. I went back as a software editor for a software publisher in Manhattan and sublet a fifth-floor walkup on the upper West Side. After a few years of scraping by in the Big Apple, I moved to a fifth-floor walkup in Boston, where I earned a Masters in Technical Writing while I was there. I cycled through a series of startups where I got to wear a lot of hats, from icon designer to doc manager to product manager. After 12 years in Boston, another tech company paid for another cross-country move, this time to Santa Cruz. In 2012, I moved to Seattle for four years.
In March, 2015, I put money down on a tiny aluminum trailer and started planning my getaway from the full-time high-tech life. On August 19, 2016, I walked out the door of an office building in Seattle and into the vagabond life. And here I am!