About

Howdy! You have reached my running blog, which is under my online persona Planet3rry. Which is combination of the word “planet” (my world) and “Terry” (my name) with the “3” added in there for my personal reference to Mathematics and Science.

I am an Thirty-Something Husband, Father, Runner, Triathlete, Statistician, Stock/Option Trader, Recycler,…

I currently live in Knoxville Tennessee with My Lovely and Talented Wife, my 2 kids (The Elder and The Younger), and Our Reliable and Resourceful Au Pair from Sao Paulo Brazil. We also have a Jack Russell Terrier that we pseudo-rescued called The Loud and Lovable Skipper Doodle.

A Little About Me:

I grew up in Petersburg, Va (just south of the State Capital Richmond) for my elementary and high school years. I went to the parochial school system of St. Joseph Elementary and St. Vincent de Paul High School (now closed) based in Petersburg.

During these years, I was an Astronomy Nut and a Soccer fiend!

I played Soccer exclusively all year long and played competively for the Ft. Lee Traveler ’71 Soccer Team starting at the age of 12. Once in High School, I chose not to play for my school team but for the Pocoshock Aztecs since the level of competition was much higher. I did play Varisty Soccer for SVHS my Junior and Senior year concurrently with the competitive fall soccer season, as to market me for college soccer. I never played collegiate level soccer outside of intramurals, as other things in college became more interesting. In 1997, I hooked up with a soccer team in Knoxville and at one point was playing 3 indoor games and 1 outdoor games a week. However, since 2004, I have not played much, but then again, I have found a few things a little more interesting.

After High School, I went to Longwood College (now Longwood University) in Farmville, Virginia. Although I was accepted at other Universities in and out of the state, I went to Longwood based solely on price. Longwood was a perfect fit for me! I was very active at Longwood, I was a 2 time officer in Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity, a officer of Longwood Ambassadors, a 4 year Dining Hall Supervisor (if you ate in the dining hall, you knew “of” me… if you didn’t know me), a member of Alpha Psi Omega National Honor Theatre Fraternity, worked a number of plays both in the Black Box Theatre and the Main Stage of the haunted Jarmen Auditorium. I even held the part of Freddy Einsford Hill in My Fair Lady. My last semester there I was a Radio DJ with my roommate Gray as part of Altered Airwaves as well my own morning show, Morning Mayhem with Mr. Arfns.

After graduating Longwood with a Bachelors in Physics (with a minor in Mathematics), I went to the Unviersity of Virginia for graduate school in Nuclear Engineering. Unfortunately, I was sick of school and got out as fast as I could (1.5 years) with a Masters of Engineering (no Thesis) in a down market for Nuclear educated job seekers. I ended up working for Wal-mart and Atlantic Coast Airlines until landing my first ‘nuclear’ job in late 1996.

In 1996, I married My Lovely and Talented Wife and moved to Knoxville the day after. I spent most of our first year of marriage on the road in Bartlesville OK, Brookhaven MS and Irvine CA doing Radiation Decontamination work (something I was highly over-qualified for, but grateful that I could get into the door of an nuclear based company). I secured a different job within the company that was located in Oak Ridge Tn, where I got to exercise some of my education. During this time My Lovely and Talented Wife was attending the University of Tennessee as a graduate student in Statistics (yes, she is nerdy, but a HOT nerd!).

I then changed jobs for a promotion and pay raise which landed me a steady project in Oak Ridge Tn with a competitor of my previous employer. For about 3 years, I sat behind a computer with unlimited internet access and not only did my job but really was able to research a new found interest in Running.

In 1998, I ran my first road race, the Smoky Mountain 8k held in Townsend TN and I was hooked. After that race at the end February, I ran every 5k that I could attend and even did my first sprint triathlon that same year. In 1999, I met a 82 year old that inspired me to run my first marathon. So in November of 1999, I ran my first marathon, the Richmond Marathon, in 4:15.

By 2002, the Oak Ridge Project had ended and I was on the road as a Hazardous Mixed Waste Broker completing projects all over the country. The traveling nature of this job was taking a toll and a 5 day project turned 28 days in February 2002 was the incentive to seek new employment. This new employment was a huge paycut though, I became a graduate assitant in the UT Statistics Department.

As a brand new (but older) graduate student, I was classmates with students 10 years younger. Being dubbed “The Old Man” was nice, but when I broke to them that I was going to be a father in the summer of 2003, that was a surprise. July of 2003, I became a father to The Elder. It was nice having a flexible schedule to be with him but in May 2004 I graduated from UT and it was time to find a job.

I was completely unemployed for about 8 weeks in the summer of 2004. Not only did I get to spend time with My Lovely and Talented Wife, I also got to spend time with The Elder as he turned 1 year. I also got to watch the 2004 Tour de France everyday too! In August 2004, I was offered and I accepted a staff position at the University of Tennessee doing Statistics. As part of my position, I did get to travel to the island of American Samoa (South Pacific) in 2004 and again in 2006. Right before going to American Samoa in 2004, we found out that in Summer of 2005 we would have The Younger. In June of 2007 we were handed a diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome which falls under the umbrella of Autism.

In October of 2007, I was also diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. After the initial shock, things started to make sense. It explained WHY I did things the way I did and how I approach things in life. I can say now, knowing that I have Asperger’s makes things even easier to handle. I’ve had years of unrealized therapy on how I interact with the world and you could say that I am pretty high-functioning.

I have created a non-profit organization called ASD Athletes (www.asdathletes.org), to help other autistics in their atheltic endeavours since I looked back and saw how much athletes helped me both socially and physically.

My Hobbies include Running and Photography (Stella is the name of my Canon XT DSLR) which are both Special Interests of mine, thus they rule my world. I run everything from the 5k to the marathon and am always training for something. I have even started to virtual coach some beginner marathoners which I enjoy. Trading (Stocks & Options) is rapidly becoming another one of my favorite things, especially since I can money doing this. I do enjoy gardening to some extent, but am satisfied with just having a few plants here and there.

I am in touch with my inner Tree-Hugger and am a stalwart recycler (special interest!). I have been known to carry used plastics, glass, etc. back home specifically to recycle. I even took back my leaves (from the curb) this past fall because I wanted to recycle them… hell, it’s free mulch! If there is way that I can recycle something I will. It pains me to see some of the stuff that people throw out!

So welcome to my blog… stop and leave a comment. I love comments and if you have anything to share, I am all ears… well if you send me an audio file I am, other than I am all eyes!