Post #1: Introduction

Hi!  My name is BloggerJoe.  I live in the Northern VA area.  Around here, we call it NOVA.  Anytime you read NOVA in my blog, I'm talking about the area south of Washington, D.C.  I actually live about thirty-five miles south of DC.  I'm a gay man in my early 50's living with my partner of three years.  I came out very late in life, but luckily managed to find my soul mate after only a couple of years of searching.

I am currently a writer by profession, although for most of my life I worked with computers.  I've worked in many different venues from small retail establishments, to large retail establishments, to small military bases, to large government departments.  I have been fortunate to be able to travel all over the world and learned many things in the process.

I grew up in a small town in the Arizona desert.  It was probably the best place to grow up.  We didn't lock our doors at night ever.  I'm not certain that my family does even now.  I was fairly religious as I was growing up, but that has evolved over time.  I now consider myself very spiritual, but not very religious.  I'm very nature-centered in my spiritual observances.  And a heck of a lot more tolerant now than I was in my teens.

I have a huge list of "hobbies", areas of interest, but the three that are at the top are reading/writing, cooking, and bicycling.  As I mentioned earlier, I live with two cocker spaniels.  I've had a cocker spaniel in my life since I was in my late twenties.  It all goes back to Disney's "Lady and the Tramp."  If you follow my posts, you'll be hearing a lot about my guys.  And probably see a picture or two.  My dogs have taught me a lot of important things and these will be the subject of some of my posts later on.

My main purpose in this blog is to Speak Out.  I came out very late in life, in my late 40s.  It took me a couple of years to figure out the "lifestyle", but I've got a handle on things now.  I have more time to Speak Out since I'm no longer the rat running after the cheese, and I find that I have things to say that are important to me.  Some of it will be about religion; some of it will be about politics; some of it will be about relationships; but all of it will be about me and how I define myself.

I hope you come back for a visit.  I hope to make this enjoyable.  I want to hear from everyone about everything.  This whole blog is about my opinion, and I hope you'll give me the benefit of yours.

Enjoy!

Couldn't resist.  This is Jack and Dusty, otherwise known as Da Boys.  Dusty is the golden one with his head on Jack's back legs.  They are both rescue dogs from our local chapter of the cocker spaniel resuce league.  This was taken just a few days ago during a thunderstorm.  You can tell that they couldn't have cared less about what was going on outside.