Things you’ll wish you never knew about me

First Angela tagged me, then Michael, and most recently Andy. At the risk of letting Andy believe he goaded me into a response, I am finally getting around to participating in this meme.

Writing this blog gives potential clients an opportunity to get to know me professionally, and this exercise offers the opportunity to get to know me personally.

The rules are simple:

• Link to the person (or persons?) that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
• Share 7 random and/or weird things about yourself.
• Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.

So without any additional fanfare, here are seven things you may wish you never knew about Art Dinkin:

1. Ever see the movie Jaws? Remember when the shark swims under a bridge to attack a kid on a raft? The movie was filmed on Martha's Vineyard, a place very dear to me. My first visit to the island was in April of 1982. I decided to jump off that bridge into the water. Don't do that. The Atlantic Ocean is very cold in April. I was so cold my skin was bright red after my short swim to shore.
2. My military occupational specialty (MOS) in the Army was 91S, preventive medicine technician. Part of our job included military entomology (the study of bugs). I think I was in the only platoon in the entire Army which could be seen marching with butterfly nets on our shoulders.
3. I moved to Des Moines in March of 1999. This was supposed to be a temporary stop in my effort to move back to the east coast. Now I do not want to move and in a few months I will have lived in Des Moines longer than I have lived in any other community (9 years).
4. I never hunted before I moved to Iowa. Today I hunt pheasant, deer, and turkey but my favorite is waterfowl. One of my hunting buddies needs only to call my house and say "Quack!" It is understood that he is asking if I am available to go hunting with him.
5. I am fascinated with aviation. My addiction started as a young boy and has never left. I took hang gliding lessons, built and flew remote control airplanes, and now I am a pilot with an instrument rating. Most of the flying I do these days is for the Des Moines Skydivers.
6. I have willingly jumped out of an airplane six times (reference #5). When you hang out with skydivers, six jumps is not that many. By mutual agreement my wife and I decided that six jumps were plenty for a man who wanted to start a family.
7. My favorite sport to play was football. The last time I played football was my freshman year of high school when I never made if off the bench. I was a defensive lineman. Immediately after what turned out to be my last season, I was on the wrestling team. I wrestled that year at 98 pounds.

Now, who to tag? Amy, Drew, Larry, Rush, and Adam would be likely candidates, but they have already been tagged. So I'll tag:

• Sherry @ DSM Buzz
• Carl @ Employer Ease
• Brett @ Blawg IT
• Jeff @ The Buckeye Battle Cry (you did not really think I would get through this without an Ohio State reference, did you?)
• Cory (or Mark if Cory has forgotten how to blog) @ Stories by REL
• Mark @ Vario Creative Blog
• Hal @ Common Culinarian

playing tag, hair aflutter by gisarah

Comments

[Mel]

Jumping out of an airplane is still on my list of things to do. Thanks for the link to "meme".

[Art Dinkin]

Mel, it is a lot of fun and quite a rush. I'm glad I have experienced it. You're welcome for the link.

[Angela Maiers]

Art, thanks a bunch for playing along! You forgot to include your life as a runner! I am still looking forward to warmer weather, so we can go for a great run with Amy!

[Larry Lehmer]

Art, it's good to know that you have willingly stepped out of an airplane at several thousand feet. As a young Air Force officer, the only time I wore a parachute was during a jump competition. There, from a door in the cargo bay of a C-141, I was "treated" to an unexpectedly frightful view of the desolate eastern Washington desert as we rolled to drop our star diver towards the target. A tip of the hat to you, my brave friend!

[Art Dinkin]

@ Angela: Of course I will play along... I like to have fun! Why wait for warmer weather? Amy, Nancy and I are doing a short run tomorrow (4:45 Gray's Lake). Are you interested?

@ Larry: Opening the door is the scariest part! If you want to jump, I can hook you up...

[dimes]

Dang! I think we weighed the same thing in high school.

[Art Dinkin]

For what it is worth Dimes, I have not seen 98 pounds since 1980. In fact, in 2004 I lost 70 pounds and still was no where near 98 pounds!

[Carl Lingen]

Art,

Thanks for the tag. I will try to continue the meme next week.

[Carl Lingen]

Art,

Thanks for the tag. I will try to continue the meme next week.