Kane, PA

E-mail: Information at ArdenWebSales.com

WELCOME TO MY WORLD!

A native of Northwestern Pennsylvania, I spent nearly 30 years living elsewhere, and have traveled throughout much of the U.S., eastern Canada, a brief trip to northern Old Mexico, and a year and a half in England and parts of Europe. I returned to the land of my birth in 1986.

Having traveled a good bit, I believe that the Appalachian Mountain region of the United States is the most beautiful place in the world to live-Whoa! Maybe the second most beautiful place to live. Hawaii is the most beautiful.

I love mountains and forests. So, I couldn't live in a better place. Kane is a town of only a few thousand residents. It is nestled against the Eastern Gateway to the Allegheny National Forest, a 513,000-acre tract billed as a Land of Many Uses.

BACKGROUND & EXPERIENCE

Early: By always being open to new experiences I have a multi-varied background, and a general knowledge of a lot of subjects. My first job was delivering newspapers beginning at the age of 12. Before graduating from high school, I worked part-time in a newsstand, a jewelry store, a 5- & 10-cent store, and a children's apparel store. I worked at a newspaper as my first full-time job after high school.

FBI: I left home for Washington, D.C. where I entered employment with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and became a fingerprint specialist. I had to get working papers to work at the FBI because I was not yet 18 years old. Army: Being what was then called "draft bait," I left the FBI after a few years and enlisted in the U.S. Army. I attended the Defense Language Institute, and became proficient in the Russian language. I served as a linguist in the Army Security Agency during the beginning of the Vietnam War. No, I was not stationed in Vietnam or S.E. Asia. During my tour of duty, stations included New Jersey, California, Virginia, Germany and Great Britain.

Banking: Following separation and eventual Honorable Discharge from the military, I worked in a commercial bank in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. I served in progressive positions of drive-in teller, head teller, assistant branch manager, branch manager, Assistant Cashier, and training officer. As training officer, I was responsible for developing and implementing training materials and programs for all positions in the bank.

Mortgages: Next stop was a newly established nationwide secondary mortgage market in downtown Washington, D.C. My capacities there included assistant supervisor and acting supervisor of the mortgage loan audit division of this multi-billion dollar quasi-governmental corporation. My final position was as publications administrator with responsibilities for preparing and implementing the printing budget, and writing, editing and producing educational and promotional booklets and brochures, technical manuals and forms, and sellers' and servicers' guides.

Consulting: I left that position to establish my own business near Frederick, Maryland. I provided publication production services that included writing, editing, designing, producing and distributing seminar announcements, seminar manuals, client reports, and miscellaneous other printed materials. I even arranged hotel meeting rooms, wrote computer programs in Basic and spreadsheet programs, and integrated Basic, Lotus 123® and Word Star word processing data files. This gave me my introduction to computers beginning in 1981. Clients during those years included a nationwide mortgage portfolio consulting firm as well as small, independent firms such as machine shop, wood laminating factory, purchaser of second mortgages, and many other different types of professionals, shops and stores.

Back To Banking: The time finally came to return to the mountains. In 1986 I accepted the newly created position of home office branch manager of a local savings and loan association. Many will recall that by 1987 the S&L crisis was in full swing. The S&L I worked at decided they had lived without a home office manager for 70 years and, in order to cut expenses, eliminated my position with the result that I was terminated.

Consulting & Retail: I immediately started a new business that grew in its first two years from providing a consulting service for writing, editing, designing and producing printed materials in my home to a store-front business offering these same services plus office and computer support and supplies. The severe recession of the late '80s and early 90's put many businesses in the area out of business, including mine.

Real Estate: In January 1993, I accepted a position as Executive Officer at a board of Realtors® in a nearby county. At the board I was responsible for the legal conduct and procedural operations of the office, timely computer input of new and changed real estate listings into the multiple listing service (MLS), coordination between board committees and the Board of Directors, dealing with National and State Associations of Realtors® and the implementation and administration of a cellular phone program. A primary responsibility was the production of a bi-weekly MLS book containing an average of over 1600 listings including descriptions and photos. I was liaison for the production of a periodic Homes Magazine, dealt with members' problems, interfaced with the general public, and wrote and produced a monthly newsletter ranging up to eight pages in length. I was instrumental in the acquisition, design, and installation of and instruction on a new, on-line computerized MLS system. I worked closely with the MLS system vendor over a period of two and one-half years.

Consulting: Being the independent sole that I am, I left the board and, in August 1996, established Arden Services. This is very similar to the businesses I operated previously. I altered the nature of the present business to include on-line service via the Internet.

Expanding my services and taking advantage of my real estate, computer and Internet experience, I developed and added a new service at the end of 1998--Area Real Estate for Sale--www.AreaRE.com. AreaRE.com™ is an electronic property guide on the Internet.

Internet Services: Expanding more into developing and maintaining Web sites for clients, I added the sales of Web-site hosting, site design and maintenance, and more to round out my Internet services. To consolidate presentation of these services and products, I've established www.ArdenWebSales.com on the Internet. I also opened my own online store for selling merchandise—Arden's General Store

Present and recent clients include Anne Wallingford, WordSmith , Burdick's Lodge, Cowgirl Clara's, DiBello Sales, Kibble Products, Tanner's Tea Room Bed & Breakfast, Holgate Toy Co., Basic Science Supplies, Microtel Inn & Suites, The Science Fair, RE/MAX River Country Realty, Rocking Horse Realty, Professional Realty Company, Resource Managers & Consultants, Inc., Infor*Med Medical Information Systems, Inc., (consultant), Black Cherry Forest Residential Subdivision, Stephen Shuart Exports—Large Format Camera supply source, Titusville Copy Products, and subcontracting to an associate working with publishers' assignments, among others.

In 2002, I submitted a business plan for and became the first managing director of HostingRealty.com, a Web hosting service specifically oriented to hosting real estate sales sites. I served in that position, establishing a very functional service, until the end of 2003, when I left the managing director position, but continue to sell hosting from my own hosting service—Arden Services Web-site Hosting & Design.

If you are interested in learning about or contracting for my services, please contact me. E-mail: Information at ArdenWebSales.com. Phone (814) 837-7824

ODDS & ENDS

As long as you have read this far and I have your attention, and you have nothing better to do, I'll ruminate a while so you may as well keep on reading.

Kings, Queens, and Other Ordinary Folk: While living and working in Washington, D.C., back in the "olden days" of the Eisenhower administration, I had the opportunity to see many American and foreign dignitaries. Not to be a name dropper, I'll mention a few--President Eisenhower, V.P. Richard Nixon, Queen Elizabeth II, Nikita Krushchev, and many other kings, queens, emperors and presidents as well as all sorts of congressional, judicial and cabinet members.

I don't mention such people because I am in awe of them; on the contrary, "celebrities" are of little interest other than as relates to current political events and history. I bring this up because in those days, when a dignitary came to town, there was usually a grand motorcade and mobs of people watching. I rarely went out of my way to see any of these, but one could not travel around downtown when an event was taking place without taking notice. Nikita Krushchev came to town shortly after the Gary Powers/U2 incident, and I had to cross a street on his motorcade. Since he was going to pass that street within minutes of the time I was leaving work, I decided to stop and watch. As with other dignitaries, he was smiling and waving to the viewers. I say viewers because there were only a handful of people in an entire block watching him. Also contrary to other motorcades where the procession moved in a slow stately manner to give the best opportunity for a look, Krushchev's motorcade sailed up the street at around 50 miles per hour!

Bicycles: One of my favorite pastimes is bicycle riding-NO, I'm not the kind who is all decked out in bicycling tights and special shoes on a 50-speed racer. I dress to ride in casual clothes and have a 3-speed English touring bicycle. While living in Maryland, I rode about 100 miles of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal towpath beside the Potomac River. And no, I didn't do it all at once, but in about 20-mile round trip increments. My original goal had been to ride the entire canal from Georgetown, D.C., to Hancock, Md., but I never made it. The amazing thing about the canal is that it can be in so populous an area, yet seem to be in the wilderness. Except for rarely, one can hear the river flowing, wind rustling through the trees and birds singing without hearing vehicles and ordinary city noises.

Not So Flat! You will gather from the preceding that my bike riding is more for pleasure than for sport or exercise. The towpath is virtually flat, except for short stretches at the locks. I continue to ride my bicycle but not quite as often. Living in the mountains means that, unlike the canal's towpath, there aren't too many level stretches for riding. I can ride a couple miles locally, but for a longer riding event, I have to load the bike on my car and drive to another location.

Cars: Perhaps my favorite pastime is driving, again for pleasure not for racing. Unfortunately, with each passing day, it seems the traffic grows heavier and the pleasure lessens due to the uncivilized driving habits of the majority of drivers. One would think that everyone thinks he/she and his/her business is of such utter importance that everyone else is just an obstacle to be overcome as soon and as nastily as possible.

Computers are another passion, but using them, too, seems to be suffering the fate of driving. Each new improvement, with many coming almost hourly it seems, the computer and working on it becomes an increasingly tiresome chore. I bought my first computer about 1983 or '84 and had it until 2005. It was a Texas Instruments, TI-99/4A. It was a great computer until I sold it to an afficianado. Even though Texas Instruments quit making them a couple months after I bought mine, there is a significant base of them still in use, and there are still suppliers who sell components.

I used the TI-99/4A in my first business, and started with it in my second business before moving up to an IBM-compatible XT (I had learned IBM computers at clients' offices beginning in 1982). The XT was my primary personal computer until just March of 1996 when I finally purchased a Pentium with Windows 95. In the meantime I had also purchased a pocket computer! Yes, a pocket computer from Tandy. I still have it, too, but rarely fool with it. It had Tandy's version of basic built in, and 32K of RAM. Kind of interesting when you compare this 8-ounce pocket computer with my original 60-pound TI-99/4A with the same amount of RAM. The TI also had miles of cable, one of which was lovingly referred to by TI aficionados as a fire hose!

My experience, personally and in office settings, with computers includes both IBMs and Macs. I've mastered scanners from hand-held to flatbed, B&W to color. Also in the list are: modems from 300bps through and to DSL, and from data modems to voice/phone/fax/data modem; six-pen plotter; dot-matrix, ink jet and laser printers; 5-1/4" and 3-1/2" floppy disks, SuperDisk Drive, 40Mb hard disks to over 60 gigabytes, routers, tape drives and CD & DVD RW & ROM drives; voice synthesizer; tape drives, and who knows what. I've used about 20 different word processing programs, at least three spreadsheet programs, four or more data base programs, and graphics programs galore.

Murder and Mayhem. . .

Something Is Whistling: While stationed in Monterey, California, a friend and I were walking home from a movie one evening. We were deep in conversation and I was only paying attention to what we were talking about. Fortunately, my friend was more alert than I and started slowing down, and began to pull back on my arm. We ended up diving behind a brick wall as a man ran from a bar across the street firing a pistol back towards the bar. Someone from the bar was using his own pistol to return fire. Bullets were whistling nearby. That happened exactly where we would have been had my friend been as oblivious to our surroundings as I.

Tree Top Airways: While flying across Texas in a plane belonging to what was derisively called "Tree Top Airways" my companion and I noticed fluid coming out of the top of a wing, running across and pouring over the flaps. We called the stewardess who said it probably was nothing, but she would alert the captain anyway. She returned to inform us that the captain assured her it was nothing, but he would have it checked during the next stop. At the next stop, a guy came running from the terminal with a step ladder, climbed up on the wing and fooled around in the area of the leak. Turns out, this guy was the ticket agent, ground controller and baggage handler, too. Back up in the air, same leak, next stop and the same scenario as the next one-man airport crew checked again. The flight was otherwise uneventful until we reached our destination safely and learned that Tree Top had lost our luggage! The conclusion to that event was that we got our luggage the next day as they had simply forgotten to put it on the plane.

Murder in the Night: I got up one morning, while living in downtown Washington, D.C., to find the neighborhood in a tizzy. Seems someone was shot to death right outside my first-floor bedroom window during the night, and I slept through it!

Who's Flying This Thing? On a flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles, the captain announced before departure that we would make an unusual maneuver on take-off. Boy, was it unusual! He stood the 747 on its right wing tip, when we were barely off the ground, to avoid flying into the mountainous background. After gaining altitude, he announced that we were flying at so many thousand feet at so many miles per hour, and our anticipated arrival in L.A. was at a certain time. Shortly thereafter, he came back on the p.a. system and said, "The stewardess reminded me that we are flying at a different altitude, at a different speed and would arrive in L.A. at a different time." By that time, I was wishing I had taken a boat.

What's One Engine More Or Less? On a flight in a two-engine plane from D.C. to Northwestern Pennsylvania in the early 1960's the pilot explained to the passengers what it meant to feather an engine. The reason for the explanation: he had to stop one, and continue the flight with the one remaining engine. Used to fly that route frequently but quit after the feathered engine business. A month later the flight I would have been on had I not stopped flying flew into a mountainside in Williamsport, Pa.

So What's A Little Wind? Crossed the North Sea traveling third class on a two-class ship during a Force 7 storm (I forget the ranking number, but it was one lower than a full hurricane). Ever been in the middle of the sea when the winds are blowing 70 mph and waves are running 30 feet or higher? Don't. It is not fun, especially in a small ship. I was so-o-o seasick. Tried to eat, but seeing whitecaps in my coffee cup did not do my stomach much good. You can read one of my travelling companion's account of this trip (a slightly different recollection than mine) in his recently published nonfiction book "A Roast for Coach Dan Spear" Robert Bowie, Ogee Zakamora Publications, P.O. Box 7207, Hamilton OH 45013 $12.95 + S&H. You might be in this book-Mr. Bowie names just about everyone he ever met.

Who Needs Fuel? I had interesting flight over Atlantic Ocean once when we nearly ran out of fuel in a 707. Skywalk (not Luke Skywalker): I was in the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City under the skywalks a few days before they collapsed killing many. Cold: I walked three miles through D.C. after a blizzard to attend Kennedy's inauguration ceremony in 15-degree temperature. Really Cold! I nearly froze to death at minus 15 degrees at 3:00 a.m. in January when my car broke down in the middle of nowhere.

Some Girlfriends! A girlfriend asked me to drive her to the county courthouse, but wouldn't tell me the reason. When we got there she went up to the license window to pick up a marriage license for herself and another guy. After I joined the army I got a "Dear John" letter from my girlfriend's mother! This was a different girlfriend.

Riot: Had to enter a closed bank during riots in D.C. after Martin Luther King's assassination to open main vault and reset the time locks. Commuter: Riding commuter train home one night after work and saw fire truck rushing towards us on the tracks to stop us so we didn't run into a loaded dump truck that had fallen through bridge onto tracks. Stuck Up: I was held up, with a gun stuck in my ribs, when I was a bank manager.

More Airplane Stuff: While sitting at my breakfast table one morning on a very overcast day I heard a tremendous roar. My first thought was tornado. Whatever it was passed directly over my house causing it to shake, then sudden silence. A little later I learned that a military 747 had crashed nearly straight down into a field less than one mile from my house.

Fire! I came home, to my apartment, from work one night to find the building burning. Even though the fire department wanted the building to remain vacant for the night to be sure the fire was out, I spent the night there. And, yes, I slept.