I married a wonderful woman. She loved this cat and he loved her.
He was just a kitten in a box when some kids found him. They named him Cheez-It, because that’s what they fed him. They couldn’t keep him and showed him to my young son Mike. He wanted it and he named him Emlet because of the ‘M’ on his forehead. He loved that cat and the cat loved him. I barely tolerated the cat. He rarely sat in my lap. We let him go outside and gave him a couple cat doors. He couldn’t procreate. He took down a Bluejay one day in the street. After that, every time he went outside the Jays would caw at him. He managed to live to 13. When he died I wrote his memoirs for him. He was a good looking beast.
An Astro saying
”Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”
I broke this sentence down:
What people told me I forget because of short term memory loss. Thank God for Post-its.
Another remember? Yea, right. Have to keep tons of notes everywhere. Thank God for computer memories.
I don’t get involved, too risky.
However, living eighty-one years on the earth, and one is presented with lots of things to view, learn, and do.
Traveled to a few places
I was born in Chicago and lived there a while. I joined the Army when I was 18. My father didn’t like that, I was no longer a tax deduction.
I lived and learned at Fort Monmouth, the Army signal school in Eatontown, New Jersey for about a year. This town outside the base had the best Hoagies ever.
I got to live near Washington DC for a year at the East Coast Relay Station in Frederick Maryland, it was the main communication link to all the world. I was a long range communications troubleshooter. One important note of my existence, I set up the communications to the ships heading to Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. Scary time.
View Cuban_Missile_Crisis here wikipedia.org
One night while at the East Coast Relay Station, when it was fairly quiet, I had this terrific idea. On the west side of the room I set up a connection to San Francisco, to Hawaii, to Japan, to Turkey, and then on the east side to France, to England, to Lima Peru, to New York and then finally back to us. I set up a couple teletypewriters so that as I typed on one, the signal would go completely around the world and then to the teletypewriter next to me. It took about a second or two for the signal to travel that distance. Saying ‘Hello’ to myself from around the world was a real kick.
I got to go to Pusan, Korea for a year on a mountain top near the beach town of Haeundae, and was able to visit Japan. When I was on duty I got the message that Kennedy died, November 22, 1963, and I had to relay that sad news to all the U.S. bases in Korea.
This is me working at the console in a building on the mountain. It’s just kind of like a telephone exchange, but I could call all over the world.
These are the large Troposcatter antenna’s pointing at Japan. They use heat layers in the lower atmosphere to bounce signals very far. Don’t worry Japan was friendly then, we weren’t trying to fry them; we often had to communicate to the U.S. base in Japan to contact the Army headquarters in the U.S. Haeundae is just down there on the beach. Just a tiny village with one tall four story building that tourists, and the head of Korea, Park Chung Hee, used to visit when they needed a time out at the beach.
View Park_Chung_Hee here wikipedia.org
This was Haeundae 60 years ago when I was there in 1964.
I used to go down the mountain to the U.S. Army beach house when I was off duty and drink martinis, write, and watch the ocean.
This is Haeundae today—> Haeundae
I got to live in New York City for 7 years. Lots of stories there. Got married, too.
Got to go to visit a few cities around the country when I belonged to the FoxPro programmer’s community and Fox had teaching conferences.
I’ve been married twice to wonderful, kind, and smart women. My current wife of 49 years of marriage is a beautiful woman, and a wonderful singer. I never could sing, but we could dance.
You’ve probably read and/or heard the good, the bad, and the horrible things about Artificial Intelligence. So I logged into ChatGPT one morning and asked it to write a poem about
50 years of great married life. Here is what it came up with:
Through trials and triumphs, side by side, Our love’s flame burns, a forever guide.
Through laughter and tears, we’ve walked the miles, Sharing dreams and secrets, heartwarming smiles, Hand in hand, through life’s intricate dance, In each other’s arms, we found true romance.
With every sunrise and every setting sun, Our love deepened, a bond second to none, Through silvered hair and lines of time, Our love’s melody continues to chime.
In your eyes, I’ve found a lifetime’s solace, A love that’s true, a love that’s boundless, Fifty years of memories, etched in our souls, A love that’s endured and beautifully unfolds.
So here’s to us, my love, a golden embrace, Fifty years of love, no moment to erase, With gratitude and joy, we celebrate today, Forever intertwined, come what may.
Not bad, huh? It probably snitched some of those lines from some famous writer or poet. But I think I’ve made some pretty good poems myself without using anyone elses work.
But wait, a funny thing happened on the way to my birth. Take a look at the About page. About Me Page