News - Rad...

___________________________________________________________

2004 - Welcome to my absolutely ordinary life! Since retiring in 2002 after nearly 30 years as a police officer, I've been putting much more time into RAD Software (circa 1987) as a home-based business specializing in software application design, development, and distribution. I thought about starting a second career in the educational system, but 1) I'm really too busy, and 2) I'm having too much fun!

Actually, I'm much busier now than when I was working full-time, but the neat thing about expanded discretionary time is that I do what I need to do pretty much when I want to do it.

Something I really enjoy is my annual motorcycle touring trip across the country. For instance, last year (2003) I went up to Northwest Canada, hopped on the Rocky Mountains, and rode them down to Mexico. This June (2004), I'm going to ride the entire Pacific Coast Highway from Canada to Mexico.

I wrote an article about the 2003 trip and submitted it to Wing World Magazine. To my amazement, they published it in their November 2003 edition, pictures and all.

As the weeks and months go by, I'll add more news here to bore everyone with! :)

Note: Although the below chronologies briefly sum up chunks of my life, please note that since 2009, Facebook has become a major vehicle to chronicle much of my life activities. I now maintain my main personal ‘Rad Delaroderie’ page on Facebook, but I also maintain several group pages I created to reflect different major areas of my life activities, including:

RAD Software and Consulting,
Rescue Animal Delivery
Derivism,
Man with a Gun,
The Whole America Catalog,
The Exchange Club of Columbus,
and last but NOT least...
The Original Duderonymous!

These Facebook pages are much more detailed and include pictures, videos, etc.

April 10, 2004 - A few weeks ago, I bought several internet domains, including www.delaroderie.com, of course, and www.radsoftware.org for my business (RAD Software). Today, I developed and posted a totally revamped web site at that domain, and it really looks great! RAD Software now has its own domain, web site, email addresses (main one: contact@radsoftware.org), updated download links, and much more!

July 22, 2004 - In June, I took a 7,000 mile motorcycle trip to the Pacific Coast and rode the coastal highways from Washington state to Los Angeles. It was an interesting trip with a few picturesque moments, but I wouldn’t repeat it or recommend it.

When I returned, I had a Cardiac Catheter procedure done to determine possible cardiac arterial blockage. There was some blockage in two arteries, but not enough to warrant surgical intervention.

I’ve spent most of the summer furiously coding-- enhancing and upgrading existing programs. I’m mulling over the idea of writing specialized software for vertical markets, including casinos and training facilities

February, 2005 - A starving, seriously emaciated, mange-ridden female mastiff wandered into our lives on Feb. 13th. Thus began a remarkable story of Penny and her Miracle Puppies. Click here to read the incredible story (MS-Word document). If you have a broadband connection, click here for a video that will warm your heart and make you smile.

June, 2005 - My annual motorcycle trip this year took me up the Atlantic coast to Nova Scotia, Although it was a beautiful part of the continent, the entire trip was cold and raining. The locals said that it was the coldest and wettest Spring there since they’d been keeping records, and I believe it. Next year, I’m headed west again.

October, 2005 - After Hurricane Katrina, II went to my home state and spent a month working for the Corp of Engineers helping the recovery effort there. I worked 7 days a week, 12 hours a day on the FEMA Blue Roof project. I drove all day every day around Jefferson Parish, observing and evaluating thousands of homes for damage. All I can say is that you had to have been there to appreciate the damage.

The media, by the way, did a horrible job portraying the aftermath. They focused on what was actually very little heavy flooding (for the dramatic footage, I guess), and ignored the incredible amount of wind-related damage and sustained minor flooding that caused most of the devastation. They also focused on people whining and complaining, and totally ignored the vast majority who were out there with shovels, rakes, and brooms, cleaning up and restoring their neighborhoods.

August, 2006 - This year, I rode my Gold Wing to all of the highest points west of the Mississippi (most of them in Colorado) Other than one very scary event, it was a wonderful getaway.

December, 2007 - I’ve spent the entire year designing and building my new ‘retirement home’ on 4 acres of woods in Harris County north of Columbus. Being my own contractor saved me a lot of money, making it possible to have a lot of things that I otherwise couldn’t have afforded. But it was very nerve-wracking. You can see a satellite image of my property here.

If you walk through it, you’d think I had money! I tell everyone that this was only possible by saving half of my earnings and living on balony sandwiches for 30 years. Most laugh, but it’s pretty much true. I could never have made this possible if I hadn’t saved and scraped every penny I could all my life.

October, 2008 - I traded in my 2000 GL1500 Gold Wing w/ 70,000 miles for a new 2008 GL1800, black of course. :)

June, 2009 - My first grand trip on my new Gold Wing! First to Baton Rouge to enjoy my 40th Baton Rouge High School reunion! Then to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon to spread my dad’s ashes per his request. Then ‘to California with an aching in my heart’ (Led Zeppelin for those who don’t recognize the lyrics). Then I mosied my way back across the continent on back roads and scenic highways all the way home.

November, 2009 - On my own again. Now it’s me, two dogs (Dude and Grace) and two cats (Cayenne and Pheelay) in a huge house on four acres in the country. Consider this Rad, version 3.0.

June, 2011 - Obviously, it’s been a long time since I’ve updated this log. It’s still me, Dude and Grace, and Cayenne and Pheelay. It has been a quiet, peaceful and comfortable time for all of us. I spend a lot of time with yard projects in the summer, and software projects in the winter. I build birdhouses, deer feeding areas, sitting benches, walking trails, etc. I completely enclosed ~1 acre around the house with chain-link fence so Dude can run flat out all around the property. I do my annual road trip on the Gold Wing. I’m more fully involved with the Exchange Club. I’m working on a ‘Unified Theory of Everything’, which includes the origin of the so-called ‘Big-Bang’, and a metaphysical perspective of this phenomenon that I call ‘Derivism’. I might eventually publish these projects.

August, 2011 - I just completed a 8,000 mile 17-day four-corners national tour on my Wing on behalf of our local PAWS Humane, raising funds for the ‘companion pet’ facility. It was just an idea that came into my head and grew into a great project that got a huge amount of support-- not only from PAWS Humane here in Columbus, but also support from the many humane centers I visited around the country during the tour. Wow.

November, 2012 - This year I stayed home and closed in my 18’x36’ covered back porch, thus adding about 700sq.ft. of livable space which I filled with musical stuff on one end and exercise stuff on the other end.

December 31, 2013 - Sadly, Gracie died this year, just 10 days after her 10th birthday. Her ashes were interred with her daddy at the community memorial site on the outside west side of the fenced yard. However, this was also the year of much unanticipated serendipity. I bought a new car (2013 silver Honda Fit), rode as part of the 9/11 motorcycle memorial ride in the New England states, and rode as part of a major political protest motorcycle ride in Washington D.C. I also wrote and published two books this year. Best of all, I became a ‘transporter’, helping to move four-leggers across sometimes great distances through the country to their new fur-ever homes. 2013 was a good year. Now, if I can just lose this extra weight I’ve put on during the past decade...  :)

December 31, 2014 - This will always be ‘The Year I Lost Dude’. On May 20, 2014, after a months-long debilitating auto-immune disorder, he finally passed away as I held him. Then in late November, I lost Cayenne to illness as well. Dude’s illness and my subsequent grief kept me home most of the year, accomplishing little other than continuing to help transport rescue animals. I hope so much that 2015 will be better.
This will also be the year I wrote and published my first two books: ‘Man with a Gun: How to Stay Alive’, and ‘Derivism: A New Understanding in a New Age’. I plan to publish more in the far-off future.
 

December 31, 2015 - This will be the year I uprooted my whole life. Due in large part to Dude’s death, I spent 2015 researching and then preparing to wrap up my life in Georgia and start completely over with a new life in Florida.

I put my Harris County home up for sale. I sold my Mazda truck. I sold my Goldwing. I sold my woodworking shop tools/equipment/etc. I cashed in my Roth annuities, Whole Life insurance, etc. and built a new home in a 55+only gated retirement community of 10,000 residents in Ocala, Florida called ‘On Top of the World’. I moved in Sept. 10, 2015 and I’ve started my whole life over again. This is turning out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

December 31, 2016 - This will be the year I lost my sister Becky and my last four-legger Pheelay. By ‘last’ I mean he was the last of the clan I shared my life with for the past 15 years-- Pheelay, Cayenne, Gracie, and Dude. I have no plans to get another four-legger, nor to get another two-legger either. Then again, I’ve learned a long time ago that life often doesn't consult me, so I rule nothing out, either.

This is also my first full calendar year in my ‘new life’ here in Ocala, Florida. I have met hundreds of new friends, lost weight, and significantly improved my overall health. I have enough perspective to appreciate that this huge life-change/move was the best decision I have made in decades.