Alternative 1 Send prepaid gift card. First contact me for mailing address. Desired retailers include Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Carhartt, 5.11 Tactical, and Apple.

Alternative 2 Offer me a creative idea or opportunity after reading more about my skills and interests. Buy one of the beautiful posters I self-published. Order online; credit cards accepted. For more info visit www.BlackCatNH.com/posters.htm.

Alternative 3 If your company makes products I can use or test for you, please sponsor me. I may be able to display your brand logo in person or in online content. I may be able to bring your product into extreme weather or test it under my usual workshop conditions, where things tend to get beat-up, used for unintended purposes, and sometimes left outdoors.

Vision evolving after crash
Sponsors, helpers sought

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Society's changes since 2020 have made millions of individuals familiar with "life crash", where everything falls apart. Mine started with a great unexpected loss in 2014. I thought I was fine for the first few months, but the darkness snuck up on my self-sufficient pride and took years to bottom out before a slow recovery began in 2021. It taught me a lot about the limits of human psychology.

Grief and other sudden changes can knock out the mindset your employer needs from you, and set off a domino effect from there. It is one of those things in life, like natural disasters, that are bigger than we are. It can overcome you, even if you try to stand strong and make the right decisions. You can go to work confidently and later that day find yourself in a routine moment with unexpected "brain freeze". It gets noticed. They pull you aside and tell you to "step back from work."

When there are no family to fall back on, problems feed off each other in a "catch-22" until your personal economy and infrastructure are no more. Your initial investment in life is gone. It all needs a re-boot under current prices, not the ones you originally paid, years earlier. You need a new on-ramp to get back on the highway and cruise again, because the old on-ramp no longer exists.

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On January 29, 2020 I stumbled across an idea that became my new plan. I spent February researching it and creating a first draft. On February 23 I committed to the new plan. Then the world went into turmoil, putting my plan under a series of edits to accomodate society's rapid changes.

You may contact me about it. I'm looking for sponsors and helpers with useful physical resources, backgrounds and various talents to help me make it happen! In February I dedicated it to the memory of my sister and gave it a mission statement. I hope it will inspire people in outside-the-box ways. I'm all about thinking outside the box.

More about me... Have an opportunity?
Twitter: @LakesNHWeather

The playlists on my YouTube Channel display my interests.

In 1997 I began learning web design when one of my first-ever chatroom friends made me a free website on GeoCities (remember that?) and editing required HTML. A year later I took HTML in college. Since then I've always had a web site of one kind or another, and I've made a few pages for others. I've worked with Dreamweaver but I hand-coded this page (it's the first time I've done any coding in six years). My main web site is still active though I haven't updated it since 2014: www.thesilentforest.com

The great outdoors has been my favorite setting since childhood. In college I was an outing club trip leader alongside my sister. I led winter mountaineering trips to New Hampshire's Mount Washington Observatory where I served as a winter volunteer cook on numerous occasions from 1994 to 2009. During (and after) my wildland firefighter 1 class in 2009, I manually landscaped the wooded yard at my parents' house as a means of physical training and proving what's possible with hand tools.

Indoors, carpentry became a new hobby as I remodeled the upstairs in a style I created. In 2014 I dedicated the project to my sister's memory and named the style after her. I designed and built furniture in that style; please contact me if you're interested in having me replicate some of it for you.

Meteorology and aviation are my two biggest passions. My weather website was central New Hampshire's leading weather source from 2010-13, and I'd like to bring it back or build something new on the concept -- when basic needs occupy less of my time. In college I accumulated 40 hours of flight instruction and was about to make my first solo flight. I hope to return aloft (at the controls) as soon as possible, but the future of professional aviation is beginning to look unstable.

Do you need personalized weather monitoring for a specific date, location, or activity? I've made accurate forecasts for friends running the Boston Marathon and climbing in New Hampshire's White Mountains. In May 2011 I monitored the devastating tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri for family and friends of a person who was serving as a city missionary there. In August 2011 I was staffing the fire station as Hurricane Irene threatened the area, and the chief appointed me to weather monitoring. My forecasts proved accurate and about 2 hours ahead of the National Hurricane Center. That saved the town some money. I later taught courses on hazardous weather in firefighter-friendly lingo.

I've considered a graduate degree in emergency management with meteorology, or vice-versa. I've been a firefighter/EMT for many years, beginning in Boston. My EMT lapsed in 2016. I have a career-level firefighter certification that includes Wildland Firefighter 1, valid for life. My last CPAT (Candidate Physical Ability Test) expired in 2016, and I would like to make it current again. In March 2020 I resumed fitness training as nutrition allows. I'm a FEMA-certified Public Information Officer (basic) and have numerous certificates in emergency management and disaster response.

I'm an experienced writer/photographer. See my portfolio. Maybe you have some words to edit, or a need for stock photos to use in a project. I once made most of my living licensing my photographs for advertising in large and small markets. I was a newspaper and magazine writer. Today I know it's not my long-term calling, but it's good for extra cash when the chance arises.

Do you need voice-over or narration? I have a radio voice and would like to build a portfolio.