my introduction to the hive community

i'm not a person prone to introspection although i consider myself an introvert. i have problems in social situations talking to those i don't already know.

i can easily recite the bare facts of my life: i was born in 1956 to a single widowed mother of 3 boys, my father died before i was 16 months old from lung cancer. i grew up in southern california during the golden age of growing up in southern california. my mother choose to not remarry - a difficult decision for those days.

i was a mediocre student in elementary school mainly from a mild case of undiagnosed dyslexia and an astigmatism in one eye. scholastically i blossomed in junior high school when i took interest in reading science fiction novels (my first love) which opened my mind up to unlimited possibilities of the human mind. i managed to fall in with a group of overachievers that challenged me to keep up with them academically if not socially. at about 16 i became fascinated with the american architect frank lloyd wright - architecture became my second love.

i studied architecture in college and then became a draftsman at various offices - both architectural and interior design. in 2007 without any work and with the news that my landlord of 20+ years had decided to sell the apartment i had been lived in the better part of my life, i decided to move to kansas city, mo where one of my brothers and our mother lived.

on a more esoteric note i love art, food and cooking, beautiful things, music of many varieties, gardening, animals (particularly cats), issues of sustainability, the environment and social justice.

my posts will undoubtedly be varied, chaotic,wide-ranging in topics and possibly insightful.

hello, i'm tom!