Woodchuck Creek

BLOGs and VLOGs from the north bank of Woodchuck Creek in Monroe County, Michigan. A mix of social, political and economic news and views from a heterodox point of view.

No posts. Show all posts

Home

Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)

The Woodchuck

I am just a guy that lives north of a drain ditch, but from now on I am "the Woodchuck" and my blogs are posted from "the north bank of Woodchuck Creek".

The Woodchuck looks all cute and cuddly, but it has the reputation of being an ill-tempered ground squirrel. Another name for the woodchuck is groundhog but it is sometimes called a whistlepig because the peculiar sound it makes when it is alarmed.

My blog posts are like whistles made by the woodchuck and periodically I will be calling this "whistling".

I grew up in west-central Michigan and served 13 years in the United States Air Force before moving to Nebraska where I managed a small laboratory, X-Ray and EKG department in a rural hospital for seven years.

I was an early-adopter in computer technology and bought a VIC-20 in 1982, long before anyone was using the phrase "personal computer". I taught myself to program in BASIC, took some college courses in computer programming and made several attempts to make a career move to computer programming but wasn't successful.

In 2000, a friend helped me find employment in software sales. I moved to Dallas, Texas and thought I had finally made it. But the company I worked for was bought out by SBC Global and my division was being downsized so I moved on to another company and then that company spun off my division.

When the Dot.com bubble burst, my future in software burst with it. So, I found my way back to Michigan where I did field service on laboratory instruments for a year before being pushed out and it has all been downhill from there.

I did temporary work on an assembly line, worked as a security guard at a hospital and then managed a door-to-door sales route in frozen food before I decided it was time to just be a homemaker for a while.

The down time had at least one positive impact on my life, I have spent a lot of time digging on the Internet and learning about social, political and economic issues that I previously had far less time for.

It has also made it possible for me to be politically active in a way that I would never have had time for. And, the unexpected tumble in employment also made it possible to see the world through new eyes and experience life from a new perspective.

About Woodchuck Creek

It might have been a creek once when Monroe County was a wooded swampland, but today Woodchuck Creek is a drain ditch. The creek divides Monroe Charter Township on the north from LaSalle Township on the south.

Woodchucks are native to Monroe County and are frequently seen in the ditches along the roads. This woodchuck is a bad tempered member of the marmot family also known as a groundhog. The Algonquians called it wuchak, meaning "digger". Europeans translated the word to woodchuck.

The Woodchuck Creek blog has nothing to do with drain ditches or ground squirrels, instead it is a successor to the Vine Street Report. I used to live on Vine Street in Monroe City, now I live on the north bank of Woodchuck Creek in Monroe Charter Township.

This blog offers readers a mix of social, political and economic news and views from a heterodox point of view.

Woodchuck Pages

Home
Glossary

Blog Archive

▼ 2026 (1)
- ▼ March (1)
  - Regime Change In Iran

► 2015 (5)
- ► October (1)
- ► September (2)
- ► April (2)

Powered by Blogger.