This Ole Dog By Grandpa Jim

It's a sleepy, early, Sunday and I don't have a "story," as such, but I am feeling a tad proud. Not overly proud, mind you, just a tad. Why just a little? Because, compared to all you "youngins," I am a "late bloomer" in the PC business. Seems like only yesterday I learned to turn it on and off and very little more. (Yes, teachers can be slow to learn, too. We, too, need time and tutoring in things that are new, and we oldsters need even more time, patience, and repetition! But now and then we "learn a new trick.")

My wife, Jean Marie, recalls the time she ran into a student (maybe five or six years old) and the child was amazed to discover that a teacher ALSO had to buy groceries! Do any of you remember the time you learned that teachers are just PEOPLE?

But getting back to my proudness...I was faced with a blogging challenge Friday. I had accidentally posted Ted Mangner's part 1 first, and part 2 second. I overlooked fact that when people visited the blog, they would see part 2 first, because it was LATEST! (Now for me and my limitations of late, this is a tough concept.) Could I have grasped this and allowed for it back when I was 10, 15, 20, 25, etc? Well, I'd sure like to think so, but I'm not boasting about it.

Anyway, I had to do quite a bit of editing, deleting, and re-composing in order to get the proper sequence of Ted's very long memoir. It taxed everything (and more)) of what I have had to know in this blogging stuff. (Be advised...I have a "live-in technical aide"...daughter Nancy...who is of wonderful help when I'm stuck.) Between us, we came up with a means to solve the matter.

Then there was the time that I wanted to FAIL a test! Did you ever think about how hard it is to think of a wrong answer when you don't know any right ones??? I was 20 at the time and actually perspired a lot before that test was over! In a nutshell, I wanted out of a Navy school so that Jean and I could marry and I would be out of the service. I had agreed to sign over (now called re-UP) if I completed electronics school and I was just "hanging on" with barely passing grades. (A certain sweet and lovely red-head was my distraction.) Wouldn't you know it, but I almost passed that test? It was too close for comfort, but I succeeded...no that can't be right...but I failed...no, that's not right, either...