Jamil, what year did you graduate from Bluffton High School?  Can you share some memories you have of school or growing up in Bluffton?

I graduated in 1995 from BHS.  What I remember most is the fantastic teachers we had. It seemed all of them truly had a passion for teaching and wanted to make a difference.  Mr. Brown was especially entertaining and engaging with his experiments.

I remember once he was cutting chunks of some material (magnesium?) that had to be kept wet or it would burst into flames.  A piece popped off and landed in the pocket of his shirt, and before I could say anything, his shirt burst into flames! He also had us make nitrogen trioxide, an explosive so sensitive, a fly landing on it could set it off.  His class could never be called boring. 

Growing up in Bluffton could certainly be called the quintessential small town American experience. The flags lining Main Street, the one-screen Shannon Theatre that only cost a dollar, everyone knows you because of your older siblings. "Oh, your so and so's little brother." I heard that a million times. 

That sometimes worked to my advantage. For example, the tradition of getting a melon helmet your first year working at Suter's Produce. That one where you get the most rotten, bug infested melon slammed on your head when you weren't expecting it. Since I was a Bazzy, mine was pretty clean. Others got melons that could gag a maggot!

Tell us where you live now and where are some of your previous addresses.
I live in Dayton, which has been my home for the majority of time since I left Bluffton. 
I did live in Lima for three years, spent one year in Toledo, and spent five years in San Diego. 

Living in San Diego was like living in a fantasyland. The weather was always perfect, I never lived farther that a block or two from the beach, and the people I met and things that I got to do were amazing. 

I met an animal trainer for the San Diego Zoo who put me in a cage with a cheetah. Thankfully, she was also in there with two other trainers. I became friends with a vineyard owner and got to help with the harvest and crush, and drank some great wine.  I met people who I am still friends with and look forward to seeing when I go back in May.

People always ask, "Why in the world would you move back to Ohio?" San Diego just wasn't home and there were downsides, too. Insane housing prices and taxes just make living there financially hard. Plus, with the housing bubble bursting, I saw many people losing their homes. 

I decided I wanted to make my life more financially stress free. Plus, I wanted to be closer to my family. 

I made it a mission to never have a mortgage again, and I was able to buy a house in a good neighborhood here in Dayton for less than the price of a used car because it was bank owned. 

When you trade your time for money, what do you do?
I currently own a small trucking company, Bazzy Transport, LLC.  When I say small, I mean I am the only employee.  I was hauling steel coils back and forth from Chicago, to Ohio but have recently switched carriers and am now transporting shipping containers out of Cincinnati.

I have had a few different careers in my life.  After college, I was a police officer for seven years, which I sometimes miss.  It's mostly the people I worked with I miss and the excitement, of course.

I also spent seven years as a bartender, in California and in Ohio. Seven years is apparently my magic number. 

What kinds of things do you like to do in your free time?
In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my girlfriend, Cate Common.  We have a very close group of friends that we spend time with whenever our schedules work out. 
I really have been enjoying remodeling my house since I bought it. It’s a never-ending project and I always see things I would like to improve or new materials to use.
Imagine money was no object, what would you want to do?

If money were no object, I would want to design and build my dream home. It would be on a large, heavily wooded country property. It wouldn't be on overly large house, but all the materials, fixtures, and furnishings would be top notch. I have become a bit of a homebody, so I would want my home to rival any resort.

I understand you once converted one of your vehicles to run on vegetable oil?  What was that all about?
That was a lot of fun. I found a great deal on a one-ton Dodge Ram truck with the Cummins turbo diesel and started looking at different modifications to improve power and efficiency.
I found a lot of guys converting their diesel to run on used vegetable oil. I did a bunch of research on it and once I got all the parts together, the conversion was pretty simple. The truck ran great on it, and I could get the used veggie oil for free from local restaurants. It just had to be finely strained and cleaned.