Jim Low
2005.11.20

About me: (last updated 2010-08-25)

I was born in 1940 on July 24, at Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.  Being an "Air Force Brat" I moved many times in my youth, since my Father was in the Royal Canadian Air Force and a transfer every year or two was standard fare.  After moving 28 times in my life, I settled in a Toronto home in 1974 to raise my family.  My 29th move was in 2008 where I retired to my current home in Cobourg, Ontario.

My career in the Meteorological Service began as a Meteorological Technician in 1963, and ended as a computer consultant with the same service in 1990. My first exposure to computers was with the service in 1968, dealing with mainframes. I learned FORTRAN programming to assist in meteorological research projects. In 1969, I started working with our new UNIVAC 9200 computer that took up an entire room, which had a fantastic maxed-out 64k of memory. Programming was done with 80 column punch cards, and I eventually learned to read what was on the cards by simply looking at the holes.

In 1983 I got into microcomputers, soon got my first of many Apple II computers, and still have an Apple IIgs system.  I currently use Macs.  I don't do Windows, mainly because I know Windows too well.  After my forced early retirement from the Meteorological Service in 1990, I did independent consulting in the Apple environment for several years   Then I worked for an Apple Macintosh dealer, Canadian Computer in Oakville, from 1993 until I chose a positive retirement in 2002.  In 2004 I came out of retirement again to do contract work dealing with Starry Night software with Imaginova (now Simulation Curriculum), a great company helping astronomers. I'm involved with LOGIC, an independent Apple computer user group.  Finally, in 2007, I retired for the third and (I hope) last time so I could work on my many retirement projects of love, including building castles in the sand with my grandchildren.  But I still do research for folks on genealogy or family history.

My interests include genealogy, writing, astronomy, computers, and photography. This web site will gradually grow as I add more of my genealogy, astronomy reports, and writings.

I enjoy camping and travelling to wilderness areas whenever I can: which is not often enough.  Camping trips in recent years have included driving to the Yukon and Northwest Territories, including the Dempster Highway to Inuvik (twice since 1995), driving across the Trans-Labrador Highway, and travelling through Australia and New Zealand.  In 2006, I spent a night camping in the sahara of Libya.

Activities in astronomy, at present, consists of mainly the "armchair" type: I like to read what others are doing. However, I manage to observe at times and I am a confirmed chaser of total solar eclipses.  I have been involved in thirteen solar eclipse expeditions.  My last one was a trip to China for the eclipse of 2009 July 22 (see Eclipse Trip 2009).  My next eclipse trip is to Australia in 2012.  I have been a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada since 1957 and have been involved in a number of activities with the society over the years.

I am divorced and have four adult children and six young grandchildren who, fortunately, keep me active and young.  There is no "significant other" in my life, and there may well never be another one.  After all, who would answer a personal ad like this:

Man searching for woman:

Are you looking for your rich "well established professional" who will sweep you off your feet and wine and dine you in some sunny tropical isle?

Then you're not looking for me.

I'm one pension cheque away from bankruptcy and when it comes to spending I regard travelling, camping, eclipse chasing as necessities while food, clothing, and shelter are luxuries.  I'll offer to share my little old heap of a car as we risk driving along the dirt and mud roads of the Yukon and Northwest Territories, pitching our leaky tent where we please, eating with the mosquitoes, sleeping in soggy sleeping bags, and taking walks over the arctic tundra listening to the silence of the wilderness. On a future trip you can join me as I camp along the Trans-Labrador Highway which has the highest mosquito density of any place in the world. If you have young children, so much the better, as they can help me build my castles in the sand on the beach so I don't look like a nut doing it on my own.

I'm also looking for someone who will keep me in a manner to which I would like to become accustomed.  If interested, send email to  jimlow@applewriter.com which I will probably ignore, unless you can somehow convince me to do otherwise. I'm much like Groucho Marx: "I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member." I just want to belong to clubs that won't accept me as a member!