In December 1971 I decided my life was going nowhere fast and I didn't have the money to pay for college. I decided to enlist in the military and chose the Coast Guard with the plan to learn all I could about shipboard diesel engines, get out, go to college and then take a job with the towboat company my father worked for. In fact, they offered me a position as assistant to the general manager effective as soon I as got out. It didn't work out.
In 1975, I was at a small station on the Washington coast after serving on an icebreaker for 28 months. I was board and starting writing stories to fill my watch time. I forgot and left one story on the desk in the rec room and the Chief's wife saw it and gave it to a friend to read. The friend was the editor of a weekly newspaper and she printed the story and asked for more. District headquarters found out. Instead of me being in trouble, they asked if I was interested in switching to the photojournalist rating. They were more interested in people who could write and said they could teach me the photography end. I thrived. Advanced from E-3 to E-8 in 15 years. Worked on cases involving search and rescue cases, major and minor oil spills, shipboard fires and collisions, 14 different hurricanes, the Cuban Exodus in 1980, Haitian Interdiction Operations from 1982-85, served on the Vice-President's Drug Task Force from 1982-85, two cruise ship fires, the re-dedication of the Statue of Liberty in 1986, several joint service military operations, and several other things I'm still probably shouldn't talk about.
I retired rather than take a promotion to E-9 and a transfer to Washington D.C.. I then spent 18 months as the executive assistant to marine insurance adjuster before decided it was time to go back to my journalism roots and took a job as editor of a monthly hunting and fishing magazine. Yep. I got paid to go hunting and fishing and then write lies about it.
The magazine was owned by a printing company and once they found out I was able to fix the computers and set up the web and email server, they started paying me more money and asking me to do other things. I also filled in for the editor of the weekly newspaper the company owned when he was out. I also learned how to deal with printing clients and design print advertising for grocery stores. Eventually the made me the Art & Production Department Manager. Hurricane Katrina wiped out the advertising base for the magazine, so we shut it down. We had the printing company itself back in operation after 6 weeks. Problem was I kept telling the boss the electronics were going to fail because they had sat in a humid building for a month. (When the area flooded, our building only got 2 inches of water and all the computers and electronics were three feet up.)
Finally, I had the last straw when we couldn't keep one of the machines running for more than three hours a day. I told the boss it was crap, the insurance adjuster said it wasn't worth fixing. He yelled at me for not keeping it running. I told him fine. I quit. Find someone else.
He later asked me to stay another 4 months until he could find a replacement for me and get him trained. In the meantime, I was tasked with taking the printing company to a complete digital pre-press operation.
When I did leave, I left with his five major grocery accounts. I did the work and send it to the printing company and they would pay me on a weekly basis. When two of the clients left the printing company, they called me up and paid me directly to do the work for them. About two years ago, I decided to start cutting back and now I have one client and work maybe 5 hours a week.
Other than that I write the occasional pipe blog and draw my military retired pay and social security.
Starting last year, I became a professional Santa Claus.