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ABOUT AS WE GET OLDER

As We Get Older is a blog and a podcast where we explore ideas, advice, and information to ready men for the road ahead, no matter what it brings.

Sometimes life is a bowl of cherries with extra whipped cream on top. Sometimes it’s a big fat dirt sandwich. Most of the time it fluctuates somewhere in between. If you’re older than about 35, you know life can be a messy business. How well you handle it depends largely on what you know, your intellectual and emotional intelligence, your mental toolset.

As We Get Older is for men who want to learn how to get more control of their life now and build a better future. It’s about helping you learn to avoid the worst of life, if possible, and learning to shovel dirt when you can’t. It’s also about sharing what you have learned with other men who have not been through what you have, yet.

We will review books and research reports and talk to people from all walks of life who have lived a little and have something valuable to share – their experience. We will talk with people you can learn from. And we might even talk to some more well-known people once in a while if they have some practical advice to share.

Our mission is to help you have a better journey, to give you tools and the knowledge to use them so you can build the future you want, not the one life will try to dump on you. We will talk to each other and work our way through. We hope you enjoy the ride.
Here’s mud in your eye.
Cheers,
Bob

What About Bob?

Hi, I’m Bob,

A long time ago, I started out as a volunteer firefighter and emergency dispatcher and then made it into the Kent, WA fire department. Me and two other guys were decorated for pulling a guy out of a car that was upside down and underwater in a moving river. I was promoted to Lieutenant after about 4.5 years and left the fire department after 10 years. After a few years of wandering around, I landed in public safety technology consulting. I have written two books nobody has ever heard of and authored a blog section for Emergency Management magazine for a while (Technology in Public Safety – TiPS). I have been interviewed on CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and some regional TV and radio stations. I have a B.S. from the University of Washington, a Master’s in Emergency and Disaster Management, and lots of certificates type things from FEMA and other organizations. ​

Some of my other jobs include: ski instructor, capturing killer whales, software sales, Microsoft partner manager, mortgage broker, technology sales, technology company executive, dishwasher, drinking coach and spiritual advisor, sailing instructor, delivery driver, general laborer, certified behavior analyst, personal financial management instructor, accredited asset management specialist​, chimney sweep, technology consultant to fire and police departments, and leadership and communications skills instructor. I have been bankrupt and a multi-millionaire. I’ve had to reinvent myself a few times.

I had open heart surgery when I was 46. The surgeon said I was supposed to be dead. My left coronary artery was completely shut. Most people don’t survive that. After a quadruple bypass and months of rehab (who’s turn to walk the Bob today?) I started feeling pretty frisky and very lucky and very grateful. Since then, I have also had a partial knee replacement in both knees and five surgeries on my right shoulder. Yes, I can throw from home to 2nd base which is 127 feet 3 3/8 inches… sometimes with one or two bounces. All up – 11 surgeries and 19 scars.

I was in a Warren Miller movie in 1975. Sixteen of us held hands and did a backflip on skis. Landed and skied out holding hands. I was also a watch captain and navigator on a 33-foot sailboat in the 1978 Victoria to Maui race. Seventeen days at sea to cross about 2,400 miles of ocean – and did it with only a sextant and a good clock. Raced sailboats around Puget Sound for over 30 years. I used to climb mountains and frozen waterfalls. My current sports passion is baseball. I am the manager and one of the catchers for the Mavericks baseball team in a 60+ senior league. We play hardball with 90-foot bases, uniforms, umpires, and nobody in the stands. It’s just like regular baseball only in super slow motion and with a lot more errors.

I live in the greater Seattle​ and have been married twice and the last one has stuck for 30 years (so far). I also have two very wonderful children who are all grown up.