New Guy from the DC Metro Area

[GlassMan]

Greetings all;

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Phil McKee and I'm currently living in the Commonwealth of Virginia just outside the DC Beltway. But don't worry, I'm not one of those Beltway Bandits. I'm a stained glass artist of all things. It's been a long and weird road to get to my current place in life and I won't bore you with the details. But suffice it to say that I'm kilted fulltime every single day of the year - I don't even own any pants! 8-)

I wasn't always an artist. Over the course of my relatively short life I've been an academic, a Monk, a consumer advocate and a firefighter. It was actually firefighting that brought me both to art and to kilts. When I joined the fire department the EAP (Employee Assistance Program) therapists/shrinks told all new recruits to take up something artistic as a means of dealing with stress. I took up stained glass art because I had previously been a Medieval Historian and I loved Medieval Glass. I was with the Arlington County Fire Department in Virginia and I was on duty September 11, 2001. Despite what plenty of people think, the Pentagon is actually located in Arlington just across the bridge from DC. I was on the 3rd engine to arrive on scene and I was at the Pentagon for 3 days. During which time I was severely injured (lungs & legs). After a very long attempt to rehab and get better the doctor's finally forced me to admit that I wasn't going to be able to go back and I was retired on disability. Since I had been unable to do anything work related for so long I had been spending pretty much every free moment working on glass art and all that practice made me pretty good. That's when I decided to make stained glass my profession and I've done rather well at it.

So that explains how I firefighting relates to glass, but how does it relate to kilts? After my most recent surgery on my leg I had a huge cast and I couldn't fit it in trousers. Well I refused to wear those sweatpants that have velcro or snaps down the side. Those things make me think of rappers or strippers, and I'm neither. But I also knew that I couldn't exactly wander around in my underwear. I'd always wanted a kilt and since I'm of Scottish Ancestry I decided to get one. After recovery was over I realized that even without the cast a kilt was more comfortable and it just felt more like me. So I've stuck with kilts. And since I'm my own boss, no one gives me any guff about it. My spouse loves it as do my family.

I've been a regular over at KiltReview.com and the Braveheart's forum and I've heard about XMarks there. Well, I decided to sign up and have yet another place to discuss my passion for kilts.

--Phil McKee

[Kiltedmusiclover]

Phil,

Great to have you on the forum.
Thank you for sharing about how you found the joy of kilts.
A hearty and warm welcome to you.

[Southern Breeze]

Welcome to X-Marks.Glad you found us.

[Ugly Bear]

Glad you made it over. You'll find the post-to-spam ratio way higher here than at the Braveheart forum.

Thanks for the life story, too. I never knew glass was your profession. I'd always pictured you as Samuel L. Jackson with Frederick Douglass's hairdo, but no more.

[GMan]

Phil,

Glad that you found your way over to this board, indeed a great place to be.

WELCOME!

[Hamish]

A brief word or two of welcome from me, Phil. You will find "X Marks...." to be a rather more pleasant, amusing and yet informative place to be than the "Bravehearts" forum. I hardly ever visit there nowadays, being deterred of late by the high volume of argumentative posters and the unpleasant spam messages.

Settle down here, and enjoy the camaraderie.