JimZim.net
is the
online home of
Jim Zimmerlin
of
Pasco
Washington

All About Jim Zim

Let me introduce myself, and tell you the story of my life!  My childhood years were idyllic as the youngest kid in a family of four children...  growing up in the San Francisco Bay area.  College brought me to San Luis Obispo, California...  where I was introduced to radio and went on to become a radio announcer and radio station program director.  (And met the love of my life.) Later, in order to support my wife and kids, I became a salesman of audio/video products and later, Honda automobiles.  I landed a job at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant that made possible an incredible abundance of great things for the rest of my life.  Of course, there were a few bumps along the way...  including Meniere's Disease, Polymyalgia Rheumatica, and cancer...  but I got past all that and now I'm finally retired and living in my dream house in Southeastern Washington state!  And somewhere along the way, I stumbled in to an alternate career on YouTube.

Meet my wife, Kellyn

I've gone through a lot of changes and phases in my life, but one thing has been constant for 40 years:  Kellyn's love and companionship.  I'll introduce you to her, and show you a few pictures of her over the years.

My YouTube Channel

Over the last few years, something that started as a fun hobby turned in to something much more.  My YouTube channel has become kind of a big deal, and generates a significant amount of income for our family now.  Take a look at some of the best videos I've created...  including one that's been viewed over 96 million times!  Subscribe to the channel if you want to be notified when new videos are added.  There are over 700 videos to browse through on my YouTube channel, including 30 that have more than a million views each!

My channel has over 485,000 subscribers, and my videos have had over 373 million views!

My cruise history, and links to all of my cruise reviews

I've been on 66 cruises, and I've written some fairly detailed reviews of all but a few of them.  Take a look at the list of all the cruises I've been on, and follow the links to my full reviews featuring lots of pictures and (on the more recent ones) lots of videos.

My upcoming cruises

Where are we going to go next?  Alaska?  The Caribbean?  The Mexican Riviera?  The South Pacific?
You can find out what our plans are, and what cruises are on our wish list, by reading this page.

My most recent cruise:  American Eagle out of New York City

As a west coast guy, it was a lot of fun for me to do a cruise out of New York City.  Not only did I get to spend a couple of days exploring the city prior to the cruise, but the ship visited some really interesting places between New York City and Boston.

My Model Trains

Another hobby of mine is fooling around with model trains.  I've got 26 G-scale locomotives and quite a bit of "rolling stock" for them to pull around our house.  The problem is that g-scale trains are quite large, and our house in California was quite small!  So, it was a challenge to find ways to run all those big model trains in that tiny little house.  But we solved that problem by moving to a much bigger house in Washington state with plenty of room for model trains!

My 28 year career at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant

When you hear about someone working at a nuclear power plant, it probably conjures up images of Homer Simpson...  or perhaps Chernobyl or Fukushima.  Let me set the record straight, and show you pictures of some things that most Californian's will never see in person.  Plus, I'll fill you in on what finally ended my PG&E career 28 years after it began.

Photography

I've been in to photography since the 1960's.  A photography class back in the 7th grade taught me darkroom skills, and the introduction of digital photography in the 1990's allowed me to take it to a whole new level.  I've taken some great photos over the years.  Let me show you a few of them, and tell you about some of the digital cameras I've used.

Cocker Spaniels

Kellyn and I bred American Cocker Spaniels for 15 years, before retiring from it in 2010.  It's such a long story, full of many cute pictures, that it requires a web site of its own:  ZimFamilyCockers.com

Our last remaining Cocker from our breeding program passed away in 2018, and it was pretty quiet at our house for a while after that...  but these days there's a new Cocker in our lives.  Her name is Carli, and she has truly been a wonderful addition to our lives.

Why sailing on cruise ships is my favorite vacation

It occurs to me that there are still a lot of people who have never been on a cruise.  Let me see if I can explain to you why Kellyn and I absolutely LOVE cruising, and think it's the best possible vacation!  I'll show you some of our favorite vacation photos and tell you all about some of our favorite cruise ships.

My brush with Cancer

I was diagnosed with cancer in 2000, and underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatments.  That's a chapter in my life that I hope I never have to go through again!  Let me tell you the story, and I'll even share a few pictures taken after I lost all my hair during chemo.  Don't worry, though.  My hair came back after that, but the cancer never did!