Thomas Dey

Includes Updated Thru 20130315--- ~~~ The Bio below is old but still substantially correct. I'll update sometime, but not tonight - lazy. Tom 20050922.

It's late and I'm tired. Just joined WOTL and better put something in here for a place-holder. Me: 56, married, 2 "kids" both in military and damned proud of them. Hobbies: astronomy (obsessive), entomology (collected bugs in Panama and orient for dept of agr), rock drummer late 60s, jazz interest, read 50 books/yr, lots more. Brag and boast crap: 35 patents, MENSA, INTERTEL, public speaking, 3 college degrees, mil service, honors mostly unmentionables, fellowship...enough already. Worked from early teens to now, seen poverty up close and personal but never on the dole! Hate people with shallow modern values...which probably means I'm an intolerant ass. Lots of friends who I believe rate me as highly eccentric. Worst nightmare is to be "normal." Strongest trait = passionately interested in EVERYTHING. Tom

20090802

Holy $hit! It's been nearly 4 years since I entered that "temporary" bio! Since then got another fellowship, still working, new house, wife breast CA recovered nicely, on my 3rd pacemaker and feeling great, cat died replaced with a new one, lost 40 lb on WeightWatchers and kept it off for 3 years now, lost half my retirement in stock market so will keep working indefinitely...otherwise pretty much the same person. Tom

20120731

Holy again! Three more years have passed. Life is still good. Much to my astonishment, I paid off the referenced house (30-yr mortgage) in less than 5 years and am now completely debt-free. Finally hit a million and the $ comes in way faster than I can spend it. Hence intend to retire in a year and a half. What a good feeling. Broke my leg but recovered and back into working out 2 hours a day. One dog died; got 2 more --- for 5 pets total. Family all well. I guess I should count my blessings. I'm still the same person = passionately interested in everything. The mind still works; knock on wood - Alzheimer’s does not run in our family. Current aspiration is to retire comfortably at age 66 (Jan 1st, 2014) and hopefully enjoy a decade of "active leisure." After that, God can do with me as he pleases --- as I'm sure he does now. I would consider myself very lucky indeed to attain that, but still joyfully take life one day at a time. I've mellowed somewhat and still feel like a kid in an older body. Never want to lose the kid part... Tom

20121104

Retirement approaches? Things are VERY slow at work, thanks to you know what. Turns out I can and logically should retire very soon. Fortunately, I seem to be in a very comfortable position to do so...never thought I would actually reach this enviable state. Anyway, if and when I do (anytime between now and 1/1/2014) --- I intend to do a lot of avocational stuff (public speaking again, astronomy hobby, exercise, sleep, travel, relax, hire on to a whaling ship...stuff like that). Gota go now and practice throwing harpoons into the end of a barrel... Tom

20130315

Well - it's official - my last day of work is a mere 6 weeks from now on Apr 26th. Then blessed retirement! Just a few years ago I had reconciled myself to never reaching a million and now I find I've passes double that in savings and investments. So I'd be nuts to keep working, even though I admit I actually enjoy work a lot. But, unlike many other workaholics, I DO have a fulfilling life outside work and therefore intend to enjoy it with the pressure of earning a living taken care of. That took 50 years of continuous employment from age 15 'till now. The secret to amassing $ is no mystery at all --- just educate in a profession and work your ass off for 5 decades. The apparently uncommon part is the discipline to ALWAYS live on 80% of what you earn, saving the rest. Anyone can and everyone should do that. Decades later --- retirement on your terms. OK - I'd better stop rubbing it in. I hope and intend to enjoy retirement...hope I am able to do that! Tom