About Al

Al and Annamarie at Cape Cod, MA



When I retired in 1992, I was determined to have some fun designing and building things that I never had time for in my working years.   I also loved to sail and explore, so those items figured into my early retirement years.   I built three smaller boats, worked from 1995 to 2012 on a 26 foot sailboat, traveled with Annamarie, did volunteer work, spent time with our children and granddaughter, gardening, cutting firewood to heat our home, helping friends, reading, cooking, photography, keeping up my web pages, staying up with computers and dabbling in scripting.   I kayaked from 2001 to 2008, and we owned and sailed a Catalina 27 from 1996 to 2006.   In 2008 we began making road trips to Boise to visit Scott, Gina and Caroline. While there, Scott and I hit some golf balls with his new clubs. That got me back to playing golf after 35 years of not playing.   Annamarie and I became regulars at the gym in 2011 and I joined Annamarie in birding in 2012.   So birding, the gym and golf gained favor over boating but we still enjoyed all our other activities.   In 2018 I turned 80 years old and as much as we enjoyed our beautiful home on five acres overlooking Puget Sound we felt that the area was too rural for us.   Getting into Seattle to see friends and to participate in what the city had to ofter required ferries and often long wait/ drive times. In 2018 we decided to move to Idaho. In 2020 Scott got us interested in Prospecting and we joined Gold Prospectors of America. Here's my very first panning of gold:


2020 was also the year of the pandemic. Spilling into 2021 we were continuing to avoid all travel, visiting friends except outside and with "social" distancing, eating out and even golf. But in a day trip around our home here in Meridian months ago, we spotted a fellow in one of the parks throwing what we thought was a frisby, but not to someone else but to a target. We later found out he was playing disc golf. Several months later we discovered that Idaho state parks has eight disc golf courses setup, one at Eagle Island is only 15 minutes from our house. Going there inspired us to get a starter kit with a target and three discs:



While the target serves well in our back lawn area with the "putter" disc, it's made of plastic, blows over in any wind, and isn't made to handle any long hits with the discs. So, the idea of using the open grass common areas around here still works for longer shots, just not with the target. Throwing things hasn't been anything I've kept up with, so currently my longest throws have been 75 feet compared to amateurs throwing up to 300 feet and some pros up to 500 feet. But, it's enjoyable to get out and do this and it's good exercise for me as well.


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