Somewhere between where you are and where you're going is a guy on a path of his own. If we are looking for and find one another, then the journey is every bit as important as the destination. I don't intend to arrive alone.

In many ways I'm just an ordinary guy (and can't apologize for the 'guy' part), and in other ways I'm just the guy to take home to Mom (she'll love me). I'm nice to wait staff, kid and pet friendly, you can be seen with me in public, I know my way around a card shop, I pick up after myself, and I'm a soft place to fall. What else do ya have to know??

I'm here because I'm not afraid to tell the world I'm not wired to do this alone. Oh, I could, but I want to and would daily validate an appreciated and valued partner in life, because it is just too big not to share. And since I have a lot of living left to do on several levels, I want someone to go the distance with me to the end of the sidewalk and beyond, someone who may come to consider me as practically indispensable in her life as she will be in mine, someone who is sufficiently like-minded that we have a common base but not a clone because none of us have all the answers, and that'd be sort of boring anyway. I have a variety of interests including learning yours, and I'll try practically anything twice, with the exception of chop suey, even if I haven't had YOURS. You'll find me fixing boo-boos and playing with power tools or golf clubs or cooking utensils, sitting in awe of a thunderstorm or on the lawn in front of the amphitheater. If not for sleeping I probably spend more time outdoors than in, I take my psychotherapy from the garden rather than the bartender, go to IU bball & fb, clean up pretty well, love a good movie or sitcom, a good bargain, a good book, a good trail, a good slope, a sudden road trip...driving or biking (the kind you pedal), a day on the slopes, a good play or band on the small stage as well as the jazz violinist. I'm a Fox News junkie, laugh and tease quickly, judge slowly, never forgetting that kindness matters, although I do harbor a few fairly rigid principles, mostly concerning how humans should treat one another, and I regularly look for opportunities to laugh, enjoy life, and express love, while maintaining myself at that critical half-bubble off plumb. I will fight the good fights, tho not for the sake of fighting, but realizing that under some circumstances fighting is preferable to the insidious disease of indifference. I try to stay active, and in testimony to that, I have not worn out my couch OR tv. The inner child calls the shots now and then. I've got the shopping gene, and you won't have to twist my arm to get me on the dance floor, to the museum, or to your mom's. If you pull up beside me in my car, you might see me boogyin' (much to my daughter's embarassment), and you'll hear almost anything from my radio except (c)rap, from classic R&R to new age to easy stuff to modern christian to Prairie Home Companion to Rush or Ingraham, and you might even hear "The Rest of the Story". I drive two old vehicles b/c they're not broke yet. I generally think conservatively, but can be pretty liberal when handing out the bonus points for things I think are great about you.

I live in a real home the bank and I co-own, a managable cedar/brick ranch with my slightly codependent Labrador ("Nugget") who is happier to see me the longer I'm gone...but really, after 7 minutes it's all the same to her (she frequently hangs with me when I work or golf). It's a regular neighborhood w/ quiet streets close to the good stuff, south suburban Indianapolis...but someday I'm goin' country. Yeah, life is good....but I'm looking for some home improvement, and that's where you come in.

On occasion, I have posed as the Failed Career Choice poster boy, having been primarily involved in sales and technical skills for most of it. But lately I have successfully been combining the arts of fixing boo-boos and schmoozing, which qualifies me to be a private contractor! Ta-da!... I have both residential and commercial customers, some of whom think they are my ONLY customer, so I have been blessed with staying busy and catching up on lost time. Every day there's somtething new behind the sneeze bar. My other meaningful career has been as my kids' dad, my most important job. One 1/3 thru college, a medic in the Army Nat' Guard and just back from a yr in Iraq: one a soph at Purdue (about which I'm s'posed to be upset being an IU alum, so I'm playing along). Both are great kids, and finding their way. I see too little of them, and that has taken some adjustment. But it has also given me back some freedom, freedom to find you and make the most of every opportunity to demonstrate what a real and abiding love accomplishes: bringing out the best in you and in me.

You will take up a place at the very center of my life. Your dreams will become mine, and I am willing to cheer you from the sidelines or hold tight your hand and give you that soft place to fall should you need it. You will be the subject of frequent adult time-outs, and we will share the exciting and the mundane in a new light. You will be bright and affectionate, curious, playful, creative and adaptive, spontaneous and resourceful, honest, forebearing, and defferential when appropriate. You will both rule and serve, switching gears easily, and have strong faith in a Being greater than you. You will bury the hatchet AND forget where you buried it, and not punish others/me with the fear and pain of the past but rather let them/me help you bury that too, and I will do likewise. You will be communicative and open, demonstrate character and integrity, and have your blonde moments and compulsive fits too. You may not be able to nail jello to a tree but you're willing to try, and you'll still say life is good. You will have a positive and grounded attitude but still be able to let the freak flag fly, a ready smile, and a look that will melt me. You are attractive and fit if not breathtaking to me, likewise about a half-bubble off plumb, occasionally overcome by an impulse to play fashionista with a ball cap, and have a healthy sexuality. Bonus points for playing or tolerating golf, being into gardening, enthusiastically rubbing my Lab's belly, having an appreciation for oddball things like thunderstorms and cobblestone streets. Bring your chemistry set and I'll bring mine, because it's critical we both pass the Drano Test together.

That's some idea of what to expect...the rest open to negotiation?...Discovery rocks! Look: be choosy but be brave. Can't win the lottery without a ticket. We're here because something critical is lacking in our lives, something we are so driven to find we'd be willing to let the world in on our little secret...for now. But when we find one another, His universe will on occasion occupy only the space we're in.

Whatever it takes to potentiate a 2nd. Duh. Was that a trick question?

PS...I hate that "does not want children". Of course I 'want' children...and I have 2 great ones. And I 'want' yours too. I just don't intend to further procreate.
PPS...What do they mean "Do you have a car?" Is that a common concern? Why not ask, "Do you think 'Young Frankenstein' is the best movie ever?"? Now THAT's important.