James Albert Waurzyniak Feb. 25, 1959
I was born in Detroit, MI and lived on Beaconsfield, six houses down from Morang Avenue. I considered my neighborhood to be a three block area, which had about forty kids in it. We played all sorts of imaginary games, army, space invaders, adventurers of all sorts, and of course cops and robbers, and cowboys and indians. One time a neighbor threatened to call the police because we had tied my brother Tom to a tree. Hey, he was a captive. Most of the adults did not mind if we climbed their trees, walked on their fences, or ran through their yards. Some got pretty angry if we climbed over their roof or jumped off their garages. So, we made sure that we did not get caught. Sometimes we were organized enough to play hockey (we always flooded our backyard in the winter), football, or baseball. I could not hit it baseball at all. So, I played on both teams as 'artificial runner' when someone on base was up to bat. We all had chores growing up, but as I got older I started doing chores for other household and getting paid. When I was 12 my oldest brother Mike and one of his friends came up with the idea "Odd Jobs".		He printed 500 fliers for "Odd Jobs" with our phone number and paid Paul, Tom and me 50 cents each to deliver them to all the blocks of houses surrounding our neighborhood. Mike worked Odd Jobs for a while, then landed a real job. The phone kept ringing and Paul inherited the business. The demand was high and Paul was smart. He kept the best clients, I got the second best and he farmed out the rest to Rhodes Kids. (Our next door neighbor had 5 boys and the two oldest were about the same age as Paul and me.) Around that time I had a paper route for about two weeks. The scam was this. The guy who sold me the route really wanted a substitute for a two week vacation. When his vacation was over he wanted to buy the route back. Uncle Hilary argued with my Dad that I owned the paper route and should not sell in back to the kid. Dad talked it over with me and asked what I wanted to do. I was miserable as a paper boy. The paper were heavy and screwed up my bike. I had trouble reading the house numbers, which slowed me down and really cut into my playtime. I also made more money with Odd Jobs and had control over my playtime. I sold back the route. Heck, I was a kid.
		James Albert Waurzyniak Feb. 25, 1959
While living in Detroit my family would take two summer vacations together. There was a six year period when we traveled up to Canada and rented a cabin on Gould Lake. The cabin was owned by the Church's and their cabin was a bit down the shore past the dock and fire pit. I thought they were relatives since we always called them Uncle Norm and Aunt Madalyn. I learned to swim and water sled at Gould lake. We did tourist things like visiting Sobo Beach, Greg's Scenic Caves and many other historical attractions. A habit developed of picnicking in out of the way places lakes, sand dunes, creeks, water falls, and best yet - cemeteries were we collected tomb stone rubbing or deserted quarries searching for fossils and exotic minerals. We had great times in Canada, but Mom wanted more adventures. That year we bought the pop-up "Camper House" trailer and started exploring (vacationing) Michigan. We camped in many of the state and national forests over the next several summers. We particularly liked an area in mid Michigan. My parents bought three acres on Hodge Lake were we built a house and moved to in 1974. There were fewer people out in the country, 8 miles south of Evart where my neighborhood was now a couple of square miles. We biked, swam, fished, sailed, and ran all over the place. I would run anywhere from three to 18 miles just because I liked		to. Some routes went down deer trails, over streams or through swamps. Running around the block on the road was about three miles. During the winter we skated, cross country skied, and snowmobiled. We combined snowmobiling with toe-ropes skies and those round metal sled disks. There was a lot of airborne time during our games and I am amazed looking back that none of us were seriously hurt in so many 40 mile an hour wipe outs. My brothers and I worked for most of the neighboring farms. Mostly haying but also picking stones and harvesting things like beans and potatoes. The hourly rate was a lot less than in Detroit with Odd Jobs, so we worked for everyone. We rated who we liked to work for most or least by how dangerous it was (who removed more safety devices from the machinery or who had more holes in the barn floors) and who fed us the best (Mrs. Martin made outrageous steamed pudding). I was on the six year track to earn a degree form the University of Michigan. I got quite good at writing petitions to drop out of school and drop back in. During the last few years I lived at Nakamura Coop. It worked like this. The ICC (Inter Cooperative Council) owned several houses in Ann Arbor. Its members, mostly students, shared the mortgage and tax responsibilities. The members of each house took care of chores, finances, and upkeep for that house.
		James Albert Waurzyniak Feb. 25, 1959
Nakamura had 25 people liking in the house and 10 boarders who took their meals there. Chris Kehoe was one of my housemates and we struck up a friendship. At some point Rob Bloomfield, another housemate, mentioned to me that Chris and I were an item. I laughed and told him I will have to tell her. She laughed when I told her. We were friends and as time went on we became best friends. I eventually was awarded a Bachelor of General Studies in Chemistry, History and English from the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in August, 1983. A nice degree but not too terribly salable. I saw a TV commercial reporting that there were 100,000 open positions for nurses in Michigan. I had worked in a few health related jobs so I figured I could do that. I found a program that would train me to sit for the Michigan Nursing Boards and allow me to incur a $26,000 debt. I was a much better student this time around in graduate school. I completed a Master of Science from the Leinhard School of Nursing, Pace University, Pleasantville, N.Y., in January, 1986. Chris and I got married on June 15, 1985 and returned to Michigan when I finished nursing school. I took a position on the arthritis and pulmonary unit of the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor. Three years later I transferred to the Adult Inpatient Psychiatric Unit. Chris and I share many interests. We bring new ideas home to each other. We help each other.		I got interested in computers before the Internet was the World Wide Web. I wanted to make games. Damir Juric gave me an external modem (2400 baud) when he upgraded to a 14.4 card. Telnet was the only game in town with his few friends FTP, Gopher, Archie and occasionally Veronica. He, I and Jeff Cohen a local computer guru for the U of M found pieces of software through Gopher and figured out how to make them "talk" to each other so we could use this new thing called a browser (Anyone remember Mosaic?). Anyway, that dinosaur is long dead and the web is point and click now. If you care to see what we have been up to in the last few years stop by Chris and Jim's Place, a web site desperately in need of updating. Back in 1999 people started coming up to me saying, "I will give you money, if you make a web site for me". So, we figured out how to start a small business. C&J Web Works does web design and programming for small business. So take a look, you will even find a game there that we made. In August 2003 I slipped into Diabetic KetoAcidodis and my blood sugar was over 800. I was walking around in a delirium and should have been in a coma. I got better and control my diabetes with diet, exercise and metformin. I feel much better and have a second lease on life. I needed to get my behavior's under control. I eat Some at predictable Times. I want to understand General Relativity so I started theses notes.
		August, 2004 - Jim