Things get bad when you are sick and live alone. Dirty dishes piled high. Clothes strewn about. I'm feeling better and the dishes are done. And, as a plus, the world doesn't seem to have come to an end.

Before the cold took over my brain I had mentioned a concert that Brian Lamb, at Blowback, was putting on. Brian was kind enough to send me an e-mail thanking me for the plug and then he wrote "I've been especially intrigued how you seem to have integrated your personal passions into your professional life through your various outlets."

It wasn't always so. I spent too many years very unintergrated. 29 years in the aerospace industry. I lead two separate lives. There was some overlap, but not much. I left for work in the morning and returned at night. My kids had no idea what I did when I was at work. They knew my work had something to do with airplanes but that was it.

I read once how this isn't always so. In agrarian societies, for example, there is integration with work and life. They aren't two separate worlds. The whole family participates. But I have no romantic illusions about farming. It's not an easy life. And I have a lot of passions. Music, photography, writing, architecture, typography, books, astronomy, and visual design are a few. The list keeps growing. But I felt that having work and life be more integrated could be a good thing.

I had been able to do a few things that I loved while working in Corporate Land but it wasn't much and it was always a battle, which took a lot of the joy out of the work. In March, 1995, I found something that would let me use many of many of my unused skills. Something that would let me express my passions. In 1995 I discovered the web and knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was 50 at the time.

By the end of 1995 I was doing web design full time at Boeing. I started doing some web design on the outside and in February, 1998, I quit and started my own small town web design business. There were many reasons to leave Boeing. One of the reasons was that this would let me integrate my work and my life.

I haven't regretted it for one moment. I'm making a lot less but I'm feeling a lot better. My kids can see what I do. They can particpate if they want. My music love has ended up with me putting on TestingTesting. I get to do photography in my web sites. I get to play with page layouts. This web log lets me throw everything else in. And my commute, from bed to work, is about 8 feet.

One word of caution. If you are going to integrate your work and life, you'd better *really* like your work. I still do.

It's never too late.