Good old "kids today"
Our parents knew stuff that we didn't. They had to. Whatever the level of knowledge was to keep their household running was too expensive for most people to deal with so they actually figured out how to do things for themselves.
Then specialization happened and people got more money to do things that were not part of running their households and therefore could pay other people for help with that.
Every generation thinks that the next generation isn't taught the critical things that the older one had to deal with. They handled it themselves or they paid someone else.
My dad couldn't do anything with his hands other than pick up a phone or use a hand crank calculator. Other than that he paid people for it. I do not recall ever seeing him with a screwdriver or any other tool in hand. My mom would handle the tiny stuff or someone would be called.
Three of us ended up like that. We ended up with careers that pulled us to simply make the money and don't worry about the other stuff that other people could be paid to do it .
Rob ended up being a Renaissance man. He could do anything. Truly.
I'm going to go on to a mind-bogglingly long complex paragraph on scratching the surface of the various abilities of Rob. Just because this is an opportunity to do so.
He had intrinsic music and artistic capability. But you combine those and you come up with perfect technical drawings. He picked up the math without a problem. He designed and built his own carburetors for his vehicles in the old days. Not because he cared about cars but he was trying to increase the fuel efficiency. He played any instrument in the world given a few minutes of prep. He designed his own circuit boards and soldered and created his own microcode. He could code in dozens of languages on many operating systems. He could handle the business end of rewriting an accounting system for steel manufacturer bankruptcy and became a specialist in that. Whenever he called a plumber or electrician or specialist of any sort he studied. He made sure they were okay with him taking extra time to learn. Then he bought the tools to be able to do it himself the next time. He also skied and snowboarded and rock climbed. He was an instructor in those areas just because it was fun and paid a bit (He initially did it just to get the free season passes). He had his own kayak for the local lake and he had his mountain biking. Rob was highly social in town. He was known as the mayor of Jim Thorpe even though he had absolutely no political position. That's just who he was.
Robbie knew everything and could do anything. And was always willing to teach. He did enjoy laughing at his siblings when we didn't know something or were worried about any type of repair on anything since he could simply do it.
Rob was legally blind half his life. He could use incredibly high power magnifying glasses to stick his face an inch or two away to be able to barely see something. Everything else was a kaleidoscope. The world was shifting, spinning colors and hints of images. His optic nerves were crushed from high spinal fluid pressure.
Of course he taught himself Braille and built himself a machine to pop up little actuators to then receive a signal from the computer to then be able to read the screen but translate it into Braille so he could read it with his fingers. This was before computers could speak.
Rob was addicted to doctor provided oxycodone for 3 years. Incredible dosages. Constant oxycontin and percodans
for breakthrough pain when the oxycontin wasn't enough. He had constant kidney stones and many other physical ailments that were incredibly painful. He had to spend a lot of time in the hospital with IV painkillers as he was toughing it out. After 3 years he simply yanked himself back out.
Rob bought instruments such as kid's size violins in bulk. He would give them out and give lessons for free. Rob ran the Franklin institute radio room and taught taught when the boy scouts came in for their overnights. Rob mentored and a practically adopted about a dozen young men and their families. No one knew about anyone else. There were hundreds of people at his memorial giving those types of stories.
Rob was the ultimate quiet gentleman macho guy. His knuckles dragged on the pavement as far as I was concerned from an appearance perspective. He looked like someone from ZZ top.
Rob was still driving to the very end. Only at night. Daylight was way too confusing to be able to drive. But night? Sure, no problem. He drove through his mountain town back and forth between his houses in the middle of the night. He knew if he got caught the cops would laugh and send him on his way, probably let him keep driving too. They loved him there.
He accomplished a large amount of what I described above while being blind and addicted.
He also died at 63. Because he couldn't figure out how to actually relax. He was always doing stuff. He had a couple more years of doing stuff on the current house before he could relax.
Then specialization happened and people got more money to do things that were not part of running their households and therefore could pay other people for help with that.
Every generation thinks that the next generation isn't taught the critical things that the older one had to deal with. They handled it themselves or they paid someone else.
My dad couldn't do anything with his hands other than pick up a phone or use a hand crank calculator. Other than that he paid people for it. I do not recall ever seeing him with a screwdriver or any other tool in hand. My mom would handle the tiny stuff or someone would be called.
Three of us ended up like that. We ended up with careers that pulled us to simply make the money and don't worry about the other stuff that other people could be paid to do it .
Rob ended up being a Renaissance man. He could do anything. Truly.
I'm going to go on to a mind-bogglingly long complex paragraph on scratching the surface of the various abilities of Rob. Just because this is an opportunity to do so.
He had intrinsic music and artistic capability. But you combine those and you come up with perfect technical drawings. He picked up the math without a problem. He designed and built his own carburetors for his vehicles in the old days. Not because he cared about cars but he was trying to increase the fuel efficiency. He played any instrument in the world given a few minutes of prep. He designed his own circuit boards and soldered and created his own microcode. He could code in dozens of languages on many operating systems. He could handle the business end of rewriting an accounting system for steel manufacturer bankruptcy and became a specialist in that. Whenever he called a plumber or electrician or specialist of any sort he studied. He made sure they were okay with him taking extra time to learn. Then he bought the tools to be able to do it himself the next time. He also skied and snowboarded and rock climbed. He was an instructor in those areas just because it was fun and paid a bit (He initially did it just to get the free season passes). He had his own kayak for the local lake and he had his mountain biking. Rob was highly social in town. He was known as the mayor of Jim Thorpe even though he had absolutely no political position. That's just who he was.
Robbie knew everything and could do anything. And was always willing to teach. He did enjoy laughing at his siblings when we didn't know something or were worried about any type of repair on anything since he could simply do it.
Rob was legally blind half his life. He could use incredibly high power magnifying glasses to stick his face an inch or two away to be able to barely see something. Everything else was a kaleidoscope. The world was shifting, spinning colors and hints of images. His optic nerves were crushed from high spinal fluid pressure.
Of course he taught himself Braille and built himself a machine to pop up little actuators to then receive a signal from the computer to then be able to read the screen but translate it into Braille so he could read it with his fingers. This was before computers could speak.
Rob was addicted to doctor provided oxycodone for 3 years. Incredible dosages. Constant oxycontin and percodans
for breakthrough pain when the oxycontin wasn't enough. He had constant kidney stones and many other physical ailments that were incredibly painful. He had to spend a lot of time in the hospital with IV painkillers as he was toughing it out. After 3 years he simply yanked himself back out.
Rob bought instruments such as kid's size violins in bulk. He would give them out and give lessons for free. Rob ran the Franklin institute radio room and taught taught when the boy scouts came in for their overnights. Rob mentored and a practically adopted about a dozen young men and their families. No one knew about anyone else. There were hundreds of people at his memorial giving those types of stories.
Rob was the ultimate quiet gentleman macho guy. His knuckles dragged on the pavement as far as I was concerned from an appearance perspective. He looked like someone from ZZ top.
Rob was still driving to the very end. Only at night. Daylight was way too confusing to be able to drive. But night? Sure, no problem. He drove through his mountain town back and forth between his houses in the middle of the night. He knew if he got caught the cops would laugh and send him on his way, probably let him keep driving too. They loved him there.
He accomplished a large amount of what I described above while being blind and addicted.
He also died at 63. Because he couldn't figure out how to actually relax. He was always doing stuff. He had a couple more years of doing stuff on the current house before he could relax.
