Decades

The Queen of the Skies was truly a wonderful ship. On the times I was in business class on Pan Am trans-Pacific routes, the upper deck was a non-smoking business class area and it felt like we were in our own private plane. Those were also the days when the entrance to the flight deck was simply a black curtain! One time flying to Asia, I was wandering around and noticed that the curtain was pulled aside so I took a peek. The captain was sitting with his head leaning 80s, All, Tech, Travel

Yeah, while Vietnam was a pretty hot zone and pretty screwed up from the beginning, Berlin was a cold war zone, with daily incidents at the wall. We had free access to the East and our visible intelligence officers cruised around in green military vehicles. One time a car was coming through the checkpoint back to the West when the gate crashed down on the roof.  Just another harassing tactic.  The next day a Russian intelligence car was rerouted down a one-way street dead end, where a skunk was tossed into 60s, All, Anecdotes, Germany, Places

In August of 2019 our neighbors Vic and Sandy invited several couples over to share pizza on their newly-completed front patio.  Daunna and I joined Marc & Mimi, and Swapnil & Gagan in celebrating. The featured photo shows Gagan offering his approval! 10s, All, Life, People

I recently had a discussion with a friend about working in an office in the 1980s. I recalled an experience in 1983 when our word processors were shared IBM terminals.   I was writing a fairly detailed summary of how our field support offices would be brought up to speed with docs and training before the release of the next software release for our computerized PABX product.  I was called away for a moment, then returned and completed the report, saved the file, then sent to the noisy shared teletype 80s, All, Anecdotes, Moments, Rolm

In the 1990s I worked for an outfit that had developed a reasonably inexpensive way to to transmit voice and data over fiber optic cables.  One of the investors was Deutsche Telekom and we had an office in Bonn.   Part of my job was to help verify that installation and programming techniques were as simple as possible, so I spent a lot of time in Bonn, and later on projects near Berlin. Then Ericsson bought our firm and at one point a group of Swedes that was visiting Bonn 80s, Anecdotes, Germany

Shortly after moving from the San Francisco Peninsula to Bloomington, Indiana, I needed to set up refills for some prescriptions. I made an appointment with a local doctor's office and was checking in with his assistant. She was facing down, looking over my forms, asking me questions and filling in my info. It was difficult to understand her because of other noises in the area. At one point it sounded like this: "And your (mumble) dressed?" To which I plucked at my shirt and exclaimed, "I sure hope so!" The 00s, All, Anecdotes, Life, Moments

Our neighborhood is served by a community mailbox where all of our mailboxes are contained in one large box on a pedestal where the mail carrier delivers our mail. Since most snail mail is junk mail, I normally walk up there twice a week: Wednesdays and Saturdays. Most of our neighbors know my routine. Neighbor George F. likes to kid me about my peculiar habit, and today was no exception as he pulled his car over when he saw me walking our dog. "Today's Wednesday so I s'pose you've picked 10s, All, Anecdotes, Moments

I was in the Army in the mid-60s, stationed in Berlin as a telephone repairman / switchboard operator. Our outfit was a Signal company, which included any job pertaining to communications - telephone, radio, microwave, crypto, whatever. Our sergeants and officers were not the the strict gung-ho types you see in war movies or accounts of life in the Infantry. We bunked three to a room. Each of us had a tall closet and a footlocker, where all our worldly possessions were kept. Every Saturday morning we peons headed to 60s, Decades, Germany, Humor, Moments

Verse by Fiona One afternoon in 1993 or 94, I took our daughter Fiona to Foothills Park above Palo Alto. It's great for enjoying a picnic, hiking the trails, or playing catch. On this occasion, we were wrapping up our visit just as a light rain began to fall. A car pulled up next to us with several youngsters, who looked ready for fun. At that point, Fifi came up with this short verse to describe what would probably happen after we left. [ct_spacer height="25"] When they get out They'll 90s, All, Anecdotes, Fiona

Back in the mid-1980s I had a boss who knew that I liked to spice up soups with Tabasco sauce. One day he gave me a new bottle of Dave's Insanity. Shortly thereafter, I was making a lentil soup and decided to set a couple of cups aside, ~ then added to that two-cup portion a drop - just ONE teeny tiny .25mg drop - and did I regret it! 80s, All

Daunna and I joined two other couples for burgers, dogs, watermelon, corn on the cob. As we were eating I was astounded to notice that the other five were "harmonica" corn eaters (side to side), while I was a "rotator" (roll the cob and eat around the circumference in columns). Of course I was roundly hit with all sorts of barbs and aspersions on my ancestry. I pointed out that my method left fewer missed kernels. Nobody was 10s, All, Anecdotes, People

One afternoon as I varied my route from work at IBM, taking a different road to my motel, I came upon a T intersection, with my road ending at the cross street.  On approach, one lane became two:  One for turning left, the other, right. In front of me was a car straddling both lanes, making it impossible for me or several other cars behind me to make a free left turn on the red light.  The driver behind me began to honk his horn (or "hoot his hooter" in 80s, All, Anecdotes, Australia