Accumulus. I created this neologism because I couldn’t find a word that suited me in the Oxford. From the latin ad/ac (to) and cumulus (gather in a heap). Our self — who we are — is not a whole, but a cumulation. Not an accumulation. The goal is not to “acquire,” or obtain. It is to become.
Our paths are an aggregate of experiences and influences, without which we are just brains in a vat — which is not really a life.
We don’t really know who we are until the end of our own time. Until then, our destination is the journey.
the things I carry
| Year | Month | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 0 [2] | Born in St. Petersburg, Florida, on an Indian mound.[3] Son to David and Judy, (future) brother to Malarie. | |
| 1973 | First memory: ghostly apparitions rising from the floor of my grandparents’ living room. Perhaps it was a dream. I hope it was a dream. | |
| 1974 | ♫ discovered | Hot Butter Popcorn |
| 1975 | September | Accepted to Shorecrest.⎋ Move ahead a grade. |
| 1980 | October | First visit to Kennedy Space Center. |
| 1981 | June | First summer camp at Rainey Mountain.⎋ |
| 1983 | ♫ discovered | Planet P Why Me |
| 1984 | February | Complete Air Force wilderness survival training. |
| 1987 | June | Graduate Shorecrest, honors distinction. Begin gap year. |
| September | Get a job at a surf shop. | |
| 1988 | April | First apartment on my own. |
| Summer | Endless Summer. And endless jobs: assembly line worker, warehouse laborer, fish cleaner at the boat docks, door-to-door salesperson, telemarketer, dishwasher, bus boy … | |
| August | Move to Tallahassee. Enter the FSU matriculation track through TCC.[4] | |
| 1989 | ♫ discovered | Erich Kunzel Time Warp |
| September | Become Editor-in-Chief of the student newspaper. Join Phi Theta Kappa honor society. Buy a Roland U-20 and an 8-track tape mixer. | |
| 1990 | ♫ discovered | Dave Brubeck Time Further Out |
| January | Bunch of awards: Foundation Scholarship Award, multiple Florida College Press Awards, Florida Journalism scholarship, and an award from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.⎋ | |
| September | Move to Ft. Worth, Texas. Start work as creative director at Vitalife. | |
| 1991 | January | The Vitalife CEO is a crook — management skips town, and nobody gets paid. First professional career experience = not so great. |
| February | Back to Florida. Get a job on reforestation crew at Pinellas County Park Department.⎋ Job in the woods will probably be more rewarding. | |
| July | Earn my CDL driver’s license. Begin day hauls between parks. “10-8 to your location, over.” | |
| December | Launch Make Me Laugh zine. | |
| 1992 | January | First archaeology job with Janus Research. Excavations at Moog Midden. |
| February | Keep on at Janus.⎋ Sent into the Everglades — with a compass, a machete, a shovel and a screen — to find Seminole War battlefields. Success.[5] More assignments follow. | |
| September | A pause in archaeology assignments. Drive out West on excursion with a friend. Get work on a ranch outside of Moscow, Idaho. | |
| 1993 | March | Winter thaws in Moscow. Find work as a farm laborer for the “spring dig.” Of the 36 that start, only 14 of us are left at end of season (injuries, etc). I make it to the end (with only frostbite) and get my bonus. |
| May | USFS wildland firefighting Guard School. Take my bunk at Powell Ranger Station in the Clearwater National Forest.[6] | |
| August | Jerrycan explodes on the fire line. Catch fire and fall down a mountain. Three months of burn unit rehab. | |
| ♫ discovered | Chris LeDoux Riding for a Fall | |
| October | Move back to Florida. Pick back up archaeology assignments at Janus Research. | |
| 1994 | June | Continue school. Transfer to University of South Florida. Work part-time at Janus. |
| 1995 | January | Production editor (layout) of student newspaper. |
| May | Return to Powell to face my demons. Second fire season. | |
| June | Chosen as part of a four-man crew to represent Powell at the USFS Region 1 “Firefighter Games.” Our team takes first place.[7] | |
| 1996 | July | Internship with U.S. Senator Connie Mack. |
| December | Start work as Legislative Aide (District Liaison) to Florida Senator Charlie Crist. | |
| 1997 | December | Take an ownership stake of a 1926 historic hotel at 1005 6th Street. Refurb one of the units as my apartment.[8] |
| ♫ discovered | Sasha & John Digweed Northern Exposure | |
| 1998 | October | Charlie loses U.S. Senate election. Start grad school at USF. |
| 1999 | July | Begin coding classes at St. Pete College. First courses in digital audio workstations. |
| ♫ discovered | Kruder & Dorfmeister The K&D Sessions | |
| 2001 | September | Green River expedition. We’re on the river and 9/11 happens — we can get only static-y AM radio reception at night to find out what’s going on. Eerie. No jet trails in the sky. |
| October | Open Bayflash, a little web design company, making Flash and traditional websites. | |
| 2002 | February | Develop Cybershowing virtual tours for real estate. |
| 2003 | July | Sold first house, site unseen, to an out-of-state buyer through a Cybershowing tour. |
| ♫ discovered | Deviant Electronics Silverside | |
| 2004 | October | Buy a first-year 1964 Ford Mustang with my company profits. |
| November | Crash the Mustang. Conduct failure analysis. | |
| 2005 | April | Last beer ever.[9] |
| May | Start taking yoga classes. Begin oil painting. Expand company client base. Restore the Mustang.[10] [11] | |
| 2006 | August | Take my yoga teacher, Faith, to Idaho when I revisit the old ranger station. |
| 2007 | July | Tie wrists with Faith at a little church by the sea.[12] |
| August | Move into the ranch-hand’s quarters of the Dickinson ranch in Istachatta, Florida. Become the on-site caretakers of the property so the owners can travel. Incorporate Bayflash into Ventureus Corporation — now serving remote clients. | |
| 2008 | December | It’s the economic end-of-the-world. None of my clients can pay their bills. Close the business, buy a $1,000 RV, refurb it with solar and satellite internet, christen it The Schlep, and boondock with Faith across America. |
| 2009 | December | Begin coding for SWFWMD.⎋ |
| 2010 | ♫ discovered | Yggdrasil Don’t Feed the Toadstools |
| December | Park The Schlep, one last time,[13] in Grangeville, Idaho. It’s the end of the journey for boondocking-life. Donate what’s left of it to Goodwill and rent a house for the winter in Grangeville. | |
| 2011 | December | After a year in the Rocky Mountains, move to Clayton, Georgia, to experience the Appalachians. Get involved with a species conservation 501(C)(3). |
| 2012 | December | I want to learn more about art and music. Move to Naples, Florida, and redesign the website of the Philharmonic Center for the Arts (home of the Naples Museum of Art and the Naples Philharmonic orchestra). Study art and color using resources in the museum library. Begin an autodidactic study of music.[14] |
| 2016 | June | Move to Tallahassee, Florida. |
| 2018 | May | First art exhibition: juried award winner in photography at the Florida Environs exhibition. |
| September | Begin CFP⎋ program at FSU. | |
| 2019 | December | Exploratory trip to Bermuda. What would it take to live here? |
| 2020 | February | Zombie virus apocalypse. Not going anywhere. Buy some sound equipment, catch up on DAWs, and welcome back a Roland into my life (an A-88MKII). |
| ♫ discovered | Steve Riech Music for 18 Musicians | |
| 2064 | September | What happens in the future, who knows? The infinite decimal places of an otherwise deterministic universe ensure that we can’t actually even guess. |