I was born the last of 12 kids to an Air Force career man and his dutiful wife. As Johnny Cash sang, "I've been everywhere, man. I've been everywhere." That's the life of a military brat.

Maybe as a result of never putting down roots for a very long time, I grew up painfully shy and only had a few close friends at a time. So I filled my life with other things.

Like skiing. I loved to ski. I'd pack up my 1980s groove van with kids (which eventually made me pretty popular) and we'd haul ourselves up to the Cascade Mountains in Washington State to slide down those slopes. I was a great skiier! Skiing was my life! I was headed for championships, for blue ribbons, for the Olympics! Until I tore my knee to shreds.

So...I turned to desk work -- computers, mainly. I became a dedicated computer geek and turned my hobby into what looked like might be a very promising and profitable career. I was climbing up that IT corporate ladder, impressing upper management types with my intellect and computer savvy. I was a subcontractor at Boeing, gaining favor and winning accolades all over the Boeing complex! Until the computer and airline industries both came to a crashing halt in 2001.

So...after years of trying to find footing again but merely slipping around, Fate seemed to intervene. One day I opened the front door to grab the morning paper and instead I found Opportunity walking up my front steps. I said, "Hey there, Opportunity, come on in and sit a spell." So Opportunity came in, plopped on the couch, sipped a lemonade and began tantalizing me with the idea of moving from Washington State to Cowboy Country so as to become a crafter of copper fountains.

So...packing all my stuff into a U-Haul, and packing my wife, five dogs and cat into a minivan, we said So-Long to my computer geekiness and Hello to my newfound and seemingly instinctive artisan skills. I've taken to it like a duck to water.

So...folks, here I am. From military brat to Olympic hopeful to computer geek, I have now become (fanfare, please) the Quintessential Renaissance Artisan Cowboy!

Who knew?