Born in 1946, my bride and I are among those in the leading edge of the “baby boomers”. Graduating high school in 1964, I worked for N.Y.Tel.Co. in Manhattan until I was drafted into the Army in December of 1965. Discharged in 1967 after a one year tour in Viet Nam, I used the GI Bill to attend the local community college and then State University, getting a degree in physics. After getting married in 1971, I accepted a temporary job teaching at the local high school (temporary until I could find what I wanted to do with my life). I retired from teaching 30 years later, having taught high school physics by day and college physics in the evenings at that same community college that I started attending so many years before. 

About the time of our 40th birthdays, we experienced what could be called a mid-life crisis. We bought a boat, registered for dancing lessons, went on the first of several cruises, signed up for golf lessons and started a basic ham radio course. From the very beginning my wife had only two conditions related to amateur radio; she did not want to be called an “ex-young” anything, and no part of our home could be called a shack. In 1986 we got our novice tickets (KB2BVI and KB2BVJ) and in 1987 our technician tickets (N2GZC and N2GZD). Three months later I upgraded to an advanced ticket, keeping N2GZD as my call sign. It wasn't until 2006 that I upgraded to extra, and in 2008 took the vanity call N2YH.

In the late 80's our lives started to take on a new direction when we met a small blonde show girl. Her name was Stardust's Precious Buffy, and she was a two month old golden retriever. We quickly got sucked into the world of show dogs, eventually putting championship titles on five of our own goldens. Since retirement, we've moved to rural Florida and live peacefully with our 19 goldens, most being descendants of Buffy and most being retired like we are. My current QSL card has a picture of me handling one of Buffy's great-grand daughters at her first show. We are active members of a local kennel club and a local amateur radio club. I am also a member of the American Legion, the VFW, the NRA, the ARRL and a Masonic Lodge.

During the last year I finally erected the tower that I've dreamed about for almost 25 years. It's a motorized crank-up, tilt over TriEx 354 tower with my old rebuilt Hygain TH3 MK3 Thunderbird sitting up top. I enjoy working 20m phone and am looking forward to the 10m band opening soon. I recently configured my station to work PSK31, but found that I don't type fast enough to keep up with the software (HRD). I enjoy trading QSL cards and will always qsl 100%.

As I sit here typing, I'm reminded of the saying, “Life is an adventure, enjoy the trip.” I am amazed at how fast this adventure has passed by, and can't help but wonder how much more of our adventure is yet to play out!