I never wanted to go anywhere near the water.  Not when I lived by Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, WI, not when I lived near the Black River in Watertown, NY, and most certainly not when I moved to the state of 10,000 lakes and the mighty Mississippi!  What happened?  My wife talked me into a brief kayaking adventure in Martha's Vineyand, which despite taking place on an incredibly windy day, was lots of fun.  After that, she insisted on taking a kayaking course at our Army post's rec center.  I signed up, but was working late that day and still not crazy about the concept.  A few moves later, and she bought a Thule rack and talked me into renting some sea kayaks for an instruction course.  I didn't like this at all.  It was a cold rainy weekend and I felt way too big inside the little cockpit of the 17' Eclipse.

Later, however, she was still looking into kayaks.  This time, at an inflatable something or other called a Sea Eagle:

"You say we don't need to load it on the racks?"
"I can pack it in the trunk or in a corner of the garage?"
"If the water allows, I can kick my legs out and take a quick nap in the sun...?"
"Let's get it!"

About a week later I was hooked.  It was still a lot of 'stuff' to haul around, but I loved it.  Another thing I enjoyed about Inflatable Kayaks (IKs) is that in almost any sized vehicle, you could bring 2,3, or 4 kayaks with you...so I could get my friends in on the fun too!  Now, with two children, my wife is not so crazy about water adventures of any kind...I hope I haven't spoiled the idea altogether with my excitement over IKs.

I'm not just about kayaking though...to pay the bills, my passion is an application development platform called Lotus Notes/Domino.  Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino allow one to rapidly design applications that communicate ideas and organize information, and it does e-mail too (some people think that is all it does!).  My day job involves Domino, this website is running on a Domino server, and when the idea strikes me, I sometimes get published with the 'world's experts' in The View, The Technical Journal for Lotus Notes and Domino.   Just like the path you take down a particular busy stretch of water, my talent is in recognizing and taking advantage of the possibilities before me.

I hope to hear from you, whether you're a paddler, a Lotus Domino enthusiast, or just some person in the Midwest USA that wants to share their thoughts.

Cheers,
Rich Thomsen