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Recent Bios FAQ

74707 "Rick & Teri Kessler" <jrkessler@h...> 2000‑02‑08 confessions of a lurker (bio)
Ahem---

I guess it's time for this lurker to come out from behind the screen door,
quit eavesdropping and put my own two cents worth in. As the price of
admission is my bio, here goes.

My name is Rick Kessler.

I left college in 197(mumble) after I saw a Newsweek cover with a guy in cap
and gown digging a ditch- no jobs for the educated. Went to Alaska for a few
years during the Pipeline project (now I've dated myself) and ended up in
L.A. as the Disco Decade eroded away. It's true about L.A, it's not what you
know-it's WHO you know, which is how I found myself building (project
managing) recording studios. If ever a person was UN-qualified for a job it
was I (me?) Very steep learning curve. I found, however, I really enjoyed
not only the challenge of building the most precise rooms in creation but
the process as well.

Fast forward a few years, burnt out on Los Angeles, I decided to take a year
and be a ski bum. Well, if your going to be a ski bum you might as well do
it right, so I went to Aspen, CO. Ended up staying twelve years. There is
where I really learned my trade. The first few years I pounded nails in the
summer(what's this hammer thing, where's the switch? Whaddya mean there's no
battery?), and tended bar in the winter(freeing up days for skiing, ya know.
As an aside, Aspen has more Master's degrees and PhD's than any other city
it's size and a disproportionate number of them are gin slingers.)
As the damage to my knees (from skiing) mounted, I gravitated away from
bartending (ok, ok, and damage to my liver too!) and went with construction
full time, specializing in high end trim work, Architectural details, and
custom furniture. If ever a mecca to conspicuous consumption existed, it's
Aspen, Colorado. Work was plentiful, and well paying. If you DIDN'T charge
an arm and a leg, clients figured your work was sub-par! (?)

And then, one day------ an epiphany------- we were on a job, trying to
accurately lay out a 12' radius trammel jig to route an arc into a Honduras
mahogany beam for the entrance into the living room of a 55,000 s.f.
week-end house, (yes, that is correct, fifty-five thousand square feet, I
told you it's consumption central.) when this carpenter comes up and says "
I think I can help you out here" and proceeds to pull out a Stanley #113.
When I saw that plane in action I was hooked!

This same fellow got me into the RMTC (past) and sold me my first old plane
( a #113)

Since those days I've moved home (Seattle), I still work high-end trim
 Bill Gates and assorted MSFT millionaires keep us carpenterial prima donnas
hopping) and I still collect antique tools, mostly users as I know if I
bought still-in-the-box tools I'd lower the value by using them.

The current project I'm working on is a modest 5700 s.f. home with exposed
clear redwood beams throughout. You ought to see the looks on the
apprentices' faces when my working partner Bubba (his real name) and I roll
out the chisels and planes to mill these beams to fit their brackets.

Thus endeth the bio (whew)

Duly submitted for comment or abuse this Seventh day of February MM

Now that THAT'S over with, hey kid, I told you I had bad knees, you gonna
let your elder stand here in pain or give up that rocker?

*****************************************************
"Seek not to follow in the old men's footsteps- seek what they sought"
Basho proverb
Rick - jrkessler@h...



Recent Bios FAQ