The Blogger As a Young Man
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| Ronald, Joe D., Bill G. |
I had recently published an autobiographical post behind this picture; I was probably about 23-24 at the time of Joe's wedding to co-worker Lynn(e) in Orlando. As I mentioned in my earlier essay, we were on terminal 4-year appointments at NPS (I didn't serve out my full term, getting out with my honorable discharge; suffice it to say I was the victim of government politics). We were originally math/calculus instructors for the enlisted track at the Navy Nuclear Power School. At the time of this picture, I had left the Navy and was now a computer programmer/analyst working in Houston, probably weight-wise in the best shape of my adult life. Joe and I were best friends, and Bill (who recently shared the photo with me) was another close friend. I haven't heard from Joe since then (although Lynn often wrote for them in annual Christmas cards for a number of years). The last I heard, they were living in Kittery, ME, near a very large shipyard, so I speculate Joe or both worked at the shipyard (as an engineer?) They had two daughters; the last card I got didn't reference Joe on the address label, so I suspected divorce, which Bill recently confirmed. Bill at the time was dating our pretty colleague Sally (Joe and I had been jealous); Bill, among other things, introduced me to the music of the Zombies. Bill took his career in a different direction, as an actuary (applied statistician, usually working at insurance companies); he and Sally split up probably a couple of years after this photo and met his wife into his new career. They recently retired in Florida, apparently well off enough to book cruises in retirement.
COVID-19 Shutdown Diary
It's odd what kind of things stand out during now long weeks into the stay-at-home regimen. For some reason, one particular irksome thing is not having a hair cut in a while. Now I was never like the Marines I used to work with who I think used to get one every 2 weeks. And it's not like I'm trying to impress fellow grocery shoppers with my personal appearance on my one or 2 trips out a week. I just don't like interruptions in my normal schedule, and my hair is longer than I prefer. By the way, I prefer barbers over stylists.Shaving, however, is something I've frequently let lapse. I've never really worn facial hair and I've never really had heavy beard growth, so for most of my life I've been able to manage it with one, maybe 2 shaves a week, especially when I'm working with others. The problem is most modern razors with multiple blades do a crappy job at handling more than a few days' growth at most.The blades get clogged and become almost unusable, basically skating over the beard and cutting little. What I inevitably have to use is the oxymoron safety razor. The problem with that is I manage to nick myself once or twice every time I use mine, but functionally it's the best way I've found of guaranteeing a close shave, no matter how long between shaves.
I'm personally sympathetic with the stir-crazy protesters of heavy-handed COVID-19 public policy decrees, which I briefly discussed in an earlier post. As I've pointed out before, the fact that seemingly asymptomatic individuals can spread the highly infectious disease has made the public paranoid. Let's be clear: densely-populated areas or social events are particularly vulnerable to the spread of the novel coronavirus. I do think there's merit in promoting risk-based public policy, e.g., aimed at the symptomatic and high-risk populations and highly dense public events. But when you start imposing paternalistic rules for the sake of rules nonsense, you start micromanaging play dates for kids, punishing people for outdoors activities, pleasure driving and the like, keep in mind 95% or more of the population (outside of urban centers) is uninfected. Can you guarantee no infection? No. But you have to respect the right of people to exercise their liberty and assume their risks. We do that all the time; we don't shutdown driving despite fatal auto accidents.
I take the following two clips as satirical in nature, not to be taken at face value:
