Hi. My name is Alan Cain. I attended the University of Oil (err, Oklahoma) back in the '70s, after Vietnam and being a medic, starting in Geology and Chemistry and ending in Geography when I saw the handwriting on the wall, and found I liked map making more than working with oil companies.
I worked on the coal reserves studies of the eastern part of Oklahoma with Dr. Friedman (as a slave), drew pretty pictures and worked for the tourism folks in OK for a while; I went to Colorado, worked for Peabody Coal and for a Uranium exploration company and realized that I really did not LIKE extractive industries all that much. I landed briefly in Missouri working in city planning, going to grad school in Resource Management, and doing organic homesteading before changing careers to Nursing.
Seems like too much school to me.
I spent time in critical care and in surgery (ran a surgical suite for a while) until I, as many do, developed serious allergies to antibiotics and latex/neoprene. I became a computer repair dude, and started an Internet service business doing wireless and fiber optics in a very small town (2000 people in the community with 100 Gigabit connections) until the next sparkly thing came along - now I am raising grapes and making wine in Washington. My vineyard uses water pumped from 500 feet down (a lovely crushed granite substrate, clear tasty water) via solar panels and we are organic; I am too lazy to find effective deadly poisons, and I like to drink my wine without lead or arsenic, thank you.
My, what a strange trip it has been! My wife is a Certified Nurse Midwife and Family Nurse Practitioner, and we still tolerate each other.
I'm a bit of an amateur naturalist; I have 140 acres to study and describe, which is really pretty blissful. I don't claim any great insights, but I do like what I do.
I am alarmed at our global blindness, and look forward to starving to death while the temperatures go up to 120 on a cool day.
I strive for optimism, and think that the journey will be chaotic as we go wherever it is we are going. I once thought I knew, and planned for utopia. Now I plan for chickens and grapes. At least I'll have coq au vin. And just think! It'll cook itself!