Fellow Galoots,

I did a bio about 1-1/2 years ago, and one of the folks
I emailed last month said he didn't know much about me
since my bio wasn't around.

I figured I'd better do something about that. I hope no one
objects too much...

Originally from Lexington VA, my family migrated us to
Newport News VA when I was 7, where I grew the rest of
the way up. I wasted a year in trying to follow the footsteps
of my ancestors by trying to go to a military school, VMI,
in Lexington, then dodged the draft and avoided being shot
at by going into the AF for four more wasted years. Then
back to NN, VA for a couple more years, and to Richmond VA
where I finally got a degree in Music Ed.

Which is where I built my first attempt at a table, with my tried
and proven method of not using any design at all, then measuring
once, then cutting twice, then three times, then four...

Within another year I realized I wasn't going to be a music teacher,
and playing my guitar in clubs wasn't making me enough money
upon which to live, had a split up with my 1st wife (and unfortunately
my daughter), so I left Richmond and moved to Boston, where the
*real* money was, I thought.

That was twenty years ago and I'm still wondering where the
*real* money is to be found, but along the way I acquired aother
lovely family. My daughter came to live with me, my new wife
and I grew two beautiful sons, and I started learning first hand
why big beautiful old houses are buyable cheap. A nice sharp
plane is the way to work with beautiful wood, but to really get
down and dirty with the carpenter ants, a sawzall is the way to
go. Besides, I didn't know anything about handtools then.

I'd better cut to the chase before I lose too many more of you.
I'm 49, live with my wife Robin, my sons Alex (7 next week) and
Jeremy (1). My daughter Tanya is 24 and lives across town with
her boyfriend. For a living I do library data base system support,
which is a fancy way of saying customer service - they call, I
answer the phone and fix the problem. For fun, I sing, play the
guitar (I have a beautiful old Martin HD-28), sing, play at
woodworking (currently finishing up the kitchen), and reclaim
old tools from the ravages of flea markets, yard sales, and
auctions. Did I say I love to sing?

Oldtools reached out and sucked me away from rec.ww about
18 months ago. Since then I've been vastly privileged to meet
many fellow galoots, and have email exchanges with many more.
I've gone from ideas of being a user, to being an accumulator, to
confessing to really being a collector, then slipping even further
down the slope to becoming (gasp) a dealer. I take no responsibility
for this, it's all Patrick Leach's fault, he told me to do it.

Okay, Gush Alert on:

This is one fine group to be in. Where else could a person sit down
with his or her 600 closest friends. I've gotta thank Gary Roberts for
making me aware of Crane's, Tom Bruce for selling me the nicest
#4 in the world, Patrick for showing us how it's done, Paddy for the
hats, they really work. This is not typica, folks, and I know everyone
knows this already, but nowhere else I've seen on the internet has
this degree of politeness, knowlege and trustworthiness.

You folks even tolerate some of the inane non-sequiters I've thrown
out as substitutes for knowlege when I respond to a posting. I can't
believe I've never been flamed by anyone on this group, not even once!

Gush Alert off:

I guess that's it for now, that's alotta lines for a bio. Besides, I need 
to
go back to the phones.

Regards to all of you
Jim