60+ year old thread.

When I found out about the money/debt my former business partner had run up in my name it was the final straw; the house went on the block, and ultimately sold for a huge loss, and we rented a small "caretaker apartment" on a 70-acre horse farm in central New Hampshire; the apartment was less per month than apartments I had back in the early 1980s as the rent was partially offset by me taking care of their horses 3-days per week. Up at 4:30; get the horses fed and out to the various pastures, muck out the stalls and clean the rest of the barn, make sure the stocks of grain and hay were staged; shower, and head off for work. After my work day I'd come back home, prep the evening grain and supplements, fetch the horses back in from the pastures, and sing them a lullaby before shutting off the lights for the night.

I did the caretaker gig for over 8-years, during which time my manager at my actual place of work "voluntold" me I was taking over a new initiative in a field now known as Conversational AI; trust me, being in one's early-60s, learning a new trade utterly and completely foreign from anything I'd done in the past was an 18-month long struggle of, "can I learn this or should I retire now?" (something I could ill afford to do). The good news is I was partnering with a young kid fresh out of college in Bangalore India and the synergy the two of us developed was nothing short of amazing; we'd compare notes of things we'd learned, and in my case he'd often say something which triggered a memory of something which I'd forgotten back in 1982 which suddenly became relevant. In the end we managed to build a new style of architecture for conversational systems which is still very leading edge, and then last year I got head-hunted and hired, sight unseen (literally), to work for a consulting firm doing projects for clients all over the world. So no, I'm not a farrier, and no longer do any manual labor around the farm (we had to move in December due to the new job), I'm just a COVID-era Work From Home geek who, once travel restrictions ease up, will start hitting the road one to two weeks per month to be on site for our clients.

 

Yes Sir, while stationed remote in Turkey '89-'90, our Sq Ops Officer had it. I was 24-25yo and he was in his 30s...the way he suffered left a permanent mark on my brain. Known a few folks since, no one has a good report about it. I got the shot(s) as soon as I learned about them and VA said I could.

I feel the same about shots regarding my Vet status...I've been stuck by so much, I doubt I'm gonna die from a vaccine or whatever. If I do, oh well, is what it is.

Hope you are well Alan, take care my friend.

 

Funny thing about chickenpox, when my daughter was going into school, the school district passed a new rule stating all students either had to show proof of having had chickenpox or had the (then) new vaccine; she got the vaccine. Three years later she and literally the entire vaccinated population of her class got chickenpox; apparently the vaccine caused the virus to morph a bit and lucky me, I got chickenpox for the second time at the age of 50.

 

I seem to have one main thing in common with most in this thread...I've been gainfully employed since I was 12 years old ... 45 years and counting. I reckon that means something.

 

Oh hell, you may not believe this, but I had the German Measles, Chicken Pox, and Whooping Cough all in one fell swoop back in 1943. I was installed in my parents big double bed, while the Doctor with his big leather doctors bag full of instruments and drugs hovered over me. I still remember, the worst of it for me was the whooping cough, my lungs turning inside out from coughing so much. I felt pretty special in my parents bed, though!

 

Hell yes it means something. I was also recruited by the Oakland Tribune to start my new paper route on my 12th birthday, I guess the legal age for child labor? Previous to that, I was a freeloader but for a short stint as puppy pooper scooper in a pet store. Yes it means something, kids these days don’t have a clue about work ethics or value of a dollar.

 

Holy crap! All that at once ... that's mindboggling.

 

I think that one of the things that makes our generation special is that we developed the work ethic quite young and worked our asses off our whole life. Modern generations don’t know what hard work is, they don’t develop the work ethic. They look for the easy way. I too started at age 10 mowing lawns in Oakland California. Push lawn mower and hand scissors to trim all for $1. Went on to have 2 paper routes, the Oakland Tribune and the Shopping News. Worked in a gas station in high school. In college I had numerous jobs from cannery work to ink factory to laborer to construction work. After college I worked 40+ years and during that time I was out of work a total of one week. I worked mostly in executive positions, high stress jobs. I made decisions involving millions and 10’s of millions of dollars. Mistakes could cost the companies millions. One decision cost the company 70,000,000. Wasn’t a mistake but let’s say not my best decision not my finest hour. The high stress really got to me and when I turned 65 I retired and never looked back. In addition our generation knows things and knows how to fix things.

 

What worries me the most is because they've never done it without the computer, they don't know when the computer is wrong and believe everything the slim box in their hand tells them. Simple example ... I've watched an airman label a CB (center of balance) on a pallet train in an impossible location, obvious by eyeballing the pieces on the pallet train. But they never realized they had fat fingered one of numbers in their calculations and accepted what the screen said as fact. Tech is making a too large sector of our society lazy and ignorant.

This truly worries me.

 

Gas in cheaper in Hawaii than in San Diego, Go Figure! I did see gas at $5.56 a gallon at a Horizon Gas station in Valley Center, Ca. on our way home from RV camping at Palomar Mtn. Yesterday-Monday. Biggest gas station I have ever seen. Something is wrong or very right with this picture! Cut our RV camping trip short by one day...no places left on my body for more mosquito bites!

 

I agree with the social aspect of work. In my situation since Covid I was forced to work 100% of the time in my hole in the basement. I'm a rarity in that I don’t care to work from home. This is a major reason I’m going to retire. I can leave my office and not feel trapped to a tight calendar and video meetings.

 

Yup. That’s called garbage in, garbage out.

 

I retired due to a medical issue. I was told in 2004 that I had an inoperable tumor on my brain stem. Later that year a doctor came up with a procedure using a robot GPS and a computer to make them talk to each other. I was the third voluntary patient to have the surgery and the first survivor.

I was told I would never work or hunt again after the surgery. I returned to work and worked till 2012 and had to retire due to headaches and other brain surgery related symptoms. I hunted in CA 4 months after my surgery and have every year since.

I feel truly blessed to have been able to raise my son to manhood and defied the odds given to me by man. It hasn’t been easy and there are rough seas ahead …. Bring ‘Em on!

 

@Sprig
Our parallels are coming into focus. Do you remember your Tribune route numbers? Mine were NB-46, NB-3, and subs for several others. How about the ink factory? Does Converters Ink ring a bell? Did you ever meet the owners? New Jersey characters straight out of Brando’s Godfather movie.

 

Good morning fellow Porchatonians!!!

Finally give in to the discomfort and went to see the Doc yesterday - tendinitis. On a fast 5 day steroid blast along with Motrin. First dose yesterday has me feeling almost 100%. Other than cutting the grass today I'll take it easy for a few more days and let the shoulder heal. Just a mild nuisance compared to what others deal with.

Be safe out there!!

 

Morning

 

Doing well Rob. Eyesight is great for distance. I find that I need my old Bi-focals for up close. I haven reading glasses but they distort the vision around the edge in the field of view, so I do not use them too often. I go back to the doctor on August 18th and will receive a new prescription for close up vision. Till them I put prescribed drops in the eyes twice a day and use refresh a few times in-between. Eyedrops will be a thing I have to do every day from here on out.

I was forced into retirement back in 2012. Glad it happened, I would have missed so much in life had it not happened.


Today is a guitar lesson and not much else. Yard work is done, house is cleaned and wife is doing laundry.

 

Good Morning Cool Old Dudes & Susan

Glad to read this. Vision can be frustrating, not to mention headache causing, when you can't get the focus right. Eyedrops don't sound like they'd be too difficult to work into a daily schedule. I use the standard drops pretty regular thru the Summer 'cuz of all the glacier silt dust. Enjoy your day, Tom.

 

6
Glad you sensed when to call the Doc.