Lenny's Bio

"Be united. Be prayerful. Love one another. Husbands, love your wives. Childeren, love your parents. Remember God in all your activities and seek His counsel and guidance in all your undertakings." Ezra T. Benson said this to a church gathering in 1946 in war torn Karlsruhe, Germany. I seek to live by this counsel.

Lenny's story begins in 1951 in southern California at San Gabriel where he was born. He lived there until 1957 when his family moved to southern Oregon, close to Grants Pass, for 2 years. The family then spent 5 years in Portland, Oregon before moving back to Los Angeles, California in 1964. At that time his parents planned to become missionaries for The Church of Christ, and went to Brazil in 1967. There Lenny lived in Belo Horizinte, Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo and is an alumni of Escola Graduada de Sao Paulo. Lenny returned to the USA in 1970 and lived there until 1976 when the Army sent him to Germany.

On entering the Army in 1974, Lenny asked to go anywhere but California, having learned to appreciate travel. The Army sent him to Fort Polk, Louisiana for basic training and Fort Sam Houston, Texas for advanced individual training in field medicine. Then Lenny ended up back in California at Fort Ord a beautiful place near Monterey. After joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, with only 15 months left to serve, the Army sent Lenny to Germany. Soon after arriving at Baumholder, Nancy Potts went there to a visit her family and soon Lenny and Nancy were married in the Temple at Mesa, Arizona. Lenny, Nancy, and their 4 children currently live in Mesa.

Lenny's travels did not end but now home is in Mesa. Others stories may be more or less varied and interesting, but they are not Lenny's to tell. These pages will share some of that story along with parts shared from others lives and knowledge. As a person travels and does various things he collects stories to tell and they are told on these pages.

Skipping to 1973 in San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California, Lenny worked at a drug treatment facility called Tarzana Psychiatric Hospital. Life was easy and as most 22 year old Lenny lived day to day like the proverbial grasshopper of Aesop's fables. Then came to America the Arab oil embargo. At least the Arab countries were blamed for an immediate increase of gas price from $.30 to $1.00 per gallon.

People were led to believe that there was not enough gas in storage, so people in Los Angeles could only buy gas on odd or even days, depending on our licence plate, and often they could only buy 5 gallons at a time. The stores also had empty food shelves, as trucking slowed to a crawl. Lenny's daily trips to the store were now hit or miss in getting food. This experience taught Lenny some long remembered lessons. As solutions to these problems came up, they often were simple and effective. The immediate food problem solved itself with buying larger quantities of food when it was available. Next in importance was getting around. The bicycle proved the solution to that problem. Well these pages are about learning and solving problems and enjoying life so please enjoy.

Lenny has commuted by bicycle since 1973. He has raced bicycles since 1981 at age 30. The road picture is during the Arizona Challenge of 1986 a 24 hour race covering 325 miles and including a total of 17500 feet of climbing. It only took him 23 hours to finish the race which would be won by Jim Elliott in 17 hours and 45 minutes. The mountain bike picture is at the state championships of 1991 in Arizona south of Flagstaff. Lenny is on a single speed in the Ironman race. Sam Houston, Lenny's 8 yr old son at the time raced the 15 mile race also. At one point while riding in 2nd place Lenny heard the whisperings of a voice saying to go back and find Sam. On the second time of hearing this distinct command Lenny did go back and found Sam who had gotten lost, found his way and they were happy to finish the last half of the race together. The last photo is a clown bike Lenny worked on and is self explaning.

 

 

Lenny has worked in a variety of fields, some interconnected and others not. Wanting to better service the vehicle he loved to use Lenny worked in bike shops and went to welding school. Traditionally bike frames were brazed not welded, so Lenny specialized in fillet brazing of thinwall cro-moly tubing and built frames and trailers to pull by bicycle. Over the years He built over a dozen bikes a dozen trailers and numerous contraptions of bicycle origins. Lenny does not commute now (it is missed) as a back condition has slowed him some.

Lenny is currently working in security for a major security company in Arizona. This was preceded by about 18 months work with iPower.com, the company that provides the servers most of his websites are hosted on. Before that was a 7 year stint as the bulding maintenance/custodian at Heritage Academy, one of his favorite jobs.

Lenny was certified as a Wilderness First Responder while working for Anasazi Foundation in central Arizona. The certification was done through Karon Bradley R.N. at Spring Creek Ranch with a lot of other Anasazi staff in winter of 1997. Lenny really enjoyed relearning many things, first learned in 1975 at Fort Sam Houston as a private in the Army. This knowledge has always given him a strength in emergency that helps others to be more calm. As you analyze and then methoudically take care of a situation, and get others involved also, those around usually settle down to the business at hand.
Your intelligence, learning, thought process are the most important training you can have to bring you through any life threatening emergency.

 

 

Now this may have been a few years ago (10-15) and my shop is remodeled, as has my waistline, but it is still me in my shop. I have pretty good space except I fill it up with too many hobbies. These pages are a result of that work and a desire to share and learn more. The Lord's way is for both parties in a conversation, business deal, or any negotiation to gain from the effort, time, and resources invested. That has been a measure I use to help me know if I am doing right or being treated right in my dealings with others. As I have said before, enjoy these pages, and by all means contact me for any reason at my email.