I graduated at 42.

Was I embarrassed? Why would I be?

Any windows you want to restrict access to, plant these things:

Pyracantha

They are no joke. Just remember, if you need that window for emergency egress it will not be a pleasant experience. Probably better than dying, but not by much.

30 year IT Professional here…

^ That guy gets it

55m here.

Half the energy, but still all the work plus some to do.

Not my video, but I did ride it that year at the World Freefall Convention.

Quincy Helicopter Ride 1998

One time, this was back in my skydiving days so a very long time ago, the drop zone’s CASA 212 was down due to a bad hydraulic pump. The pump finally arrived and the DZO asked me to help him install it. He was a certified A&P, I just had a lot of experience wrenching on cars but it allowed me to get a lot of free jumps due to helping him out on things like this.

He handed me the pump, which was a LOT lighter than I expected and told me with a smile: “Don’t drop it.”

In inquired as to how much it cost and he replied: “$10,000.”

I was holding a pump in my hands that weighed barely 10 pounds that cost more than my car (this was circa 1998 or so).

A couple years later the igniter box on the port engine died and I helped him replace it… That was a cool $15000. The engines were about $250,000 a piece back in those days.

In 2016 I was hired onto a team at a national insurance company. We did Problem Management and Major Incident Management. When I was brought aboard there were five people on the team.

Problem Management, by its nature is not all that high stress. It can get sticky especially if you’re working a Problem that has the C-Suite’s attention, but most of the time you’re working with techs that just want to get things fixed.

Major Incident on the other hand is a baptism in fire. That brought that team together and we all got to the point that we watched each other’s backs and stepped in automatically when needed without having to be asked.

6 years after leaving that job, it was a contract position, I’m still in contact with almost all of the team.

I can smell them too.

It was fun to take a hammer and hit the entire roll at once. They actually made quite the noise.

For reference, I was born in 1970 so yeah I grew up with those things.

I work from home and try not to nap. Napping can interfere with getting a good night’s sleep and I have difficulty with that enough as it is.

With that said, there are times where I will lay down for 20 minutes to reset the clock as it were. Usually about two or three times a month. I used to try and nap often, but stopped when my primary informed that it can disrupt my sleep pattern. And yes, my sleep pattern was royally screwed in those days.

Now, if I feel I need a nap I try to exercise. Either go out for a hike when it’s warmer. I picked up an elliptical off of Nextdoor and use it when it’s not nice outside. Yes, it’s tough to not just flop into my bed, which sits behind my workstation rather than hit the elliptical, but I managed to form a new habit.

You are ready to own an airplane if you can wake up in the morning, burn a $100 bill and flush it down the toilet without feeling anything.

You are ready to own a helicopter when you can do the same thing, except with ten $100 bills.

Tush

With their albums:

Moving JPEGs with the #1 hit “Huckleberry Finn”

A Farewell to Wings with the top hit “Plane Crash”

Permanent Daves

Pesto

You’re probably correct… For most people’s mothers. No, I know mine and I’m positive it was a power play on her part. The reason why I say that is because when she died, my brothers, Dad and I went through her things and guess what we found?

If you guessed items that actually had value, either sentimentally or financially you’d get a prize.

So she purposely separated anything of value from the junk. Then gave the junk to me and my brothers. My brothers also went through their items and sure enough it was all junk. Of course the apples don’t fall too far from the tree. So when our Dad died two years ago my two brothers kept everything. We are all now permanently estranged as far as I’m concerned.

So yeah, I had a fun family growing up. My wife and kids are now fully protected and will never see those people again.

But just to be clear, my family is not rich. I’m not talking about enough money to make dealing with narcissistic power plays worth it.

When I took a class to get my Concealed Carry Permit, on the very first day the instructor made a very interesting statement.

“If you are somewhere where you feel you need a gun to feel safe… Why are you there in the first place?”

While I did go on to get my permit I never once carried. I never went anywhere where I felt I needed it. If I became uncomfortable at a location, I left.

Honestly, I just wanted that junk out of my house and my life. These were several very large and heavy boxes that I had been obliged to haul around for nearly 30 years, all because my mother was playing one of her power games over me. My mother was so far up Cluster B that they probably should add a letter.

I did not want to shackle anyone else with it, because who would have bought it? Other assholes to keep around till they foist it off on their kids or some other unsuspecting schmuck. It was all mass produced garbage. The “China” dishes that were supposed to be “fine” were listed on Ebay and a couple of other sites for $1 each. My mother insisted they were extremely expensive and sought after. I never used them because I was afraid of breaking them. The crash they made when I flung the box into the dumpster was cathartic and healing.

So while it might have been a bit of a waste, it wasn’t as much of a waste as you might think and nobody needs it.

She still asks on occasion, but she takes me more seriously when I say it’s nothing all that important.

Oh if I’m thinking through something that we both need to have a say in I absolutely share my thoughts as she does with me. j

I had just bought a Camry Hybrid and my wife and I were driving in it doing errands… I have a tell when something is on my mind and my wife invariably asks what it is. Usually it really isn’t anything significant and that time was no different…

Except…

I launched into a very detailed explanation as to how the Toyota Hybrid Synergy system really works and it lasted till we got home… Did I mention we had three stops and we’re on our way to the first?

She has not asked what is on my mind since.

LOL. That would be funny.

But no, my wife and I went through every piece, opened all the lids. No fortune.

Spite.

Honestly, it was all junk.

Sufficiently advanced technology…

I work for a turbine engine manufacturer. I don’t do the cool stuff as I’m just an old IT guy, but I get to talk to those that do once in a while.

Think about this the next time you go blasting through the air at 500mph (804kmh) and 34,000ft (10300m) in the air in a metal tube…

The blades of the first stage turbine operate at the temperature they were cast at. In other words they operate at their melting point. If you’re not familiar with turbine engines, well… It’s there in the name. The turbine essentially is the prime moving part in the engine that actually produces the power to run the rest of it. If it goes, so does the engine and quite possibly in an extremely exciting way.

How does this work? Magic… Or good engineering. I’ve been told how it works, but I honestly do not understand it well enough to write about it.

For me that is the very definition of fascinating.

A few years ago my wife and I decided to finish the basement. The first step was to clean it out, which involved going through all the junk that I had inherited from various family members. My mom always asserted that all of it was very valuable and CONSTANTLY checked that I still had it all and was taking good care of it.

I went through each item one by one and looked them up. Dishes, nick knacks, all of it. It took me hours. The highest value item was maybe $10. Several large and heavy boxes that I had been obligated to haul around to all of the places I lived for the last 30 years, as my mother constantly asked me about them. It was all worth maybe $100, if I made the effort to attempt to sell it. Which would have taken a lot of time as we’re talking dozens of fragile things. It just was not worth it.

I shoved it all into the trunk of my car and took it to the dump. My Mom died in 2011, so she wasn’t around to check up on all that crap.

God damn I was so pissed. 30 fucking years of hauling that worthless junk around probably cost far more than it was worth. My mother was so insistent that I even had it sitting around taking up space in my basement 12 years after her death. Just another one of her little power plays.