Well, I expected . . .
. . and was preparing to be, a stingy, penny pinching, disgruntled old man, (You kids get off my lawn!), and working until the end - but the fates conspired against me.
Besides, I don't even have a lawn, and my neighborhood no longer has kids.
Now I am seriously conflicted. My lifelong frugal self keeps admonishing me that I'm spending money like a drunken sailor, but somehow there is always more. Of course for me, "spending like a drunken sailor" is still pretty frugal.
That's why women have always ignored me. I display no outward evidence of having money, and particularly no propensity for spending it unwisely.
I still have a few clients left who won't let me go, so I'm still "working", but it's more a hobby than really working.
I tend a few very antique systems and software. I had to give one client a little attention this month. They are managing their machine shop with DOS software they've been using for maybe 30 years, or even more. Their server failed this month and I had to replace the power supply. I built that server 18 years ago, and it's run an early version Linux 24-7 with only about 24 hours downtime. My previous best was 12 years and still running when retired due to software change.
When I started my business (1984) much of my work was keeping obsolete systems functioning - DOS, SCO Xenix, Concurrent DOS, early network systems that even I have forgotten. This didn't work well for me then because clients associated me with the old system, so for a new system they went to someone else.
Oh Hell! I even had to work on an Apple 3. It ran Apple's "Sophisticated Operating System", abbreviated SOS, an amazingly appropriate designation.
I gave up having much to do with application software. I did mostly cabling, RS232 interfaces for medical testing labs (yes some of that stuff still uses RS232 to this day), networks, including Novel, communications, and servers, particularly Linux servers, and Internet equipment. I also built a lot of workstation PCs until the commercial ones became too cheap - and if anything went wrong with those I could charge all my time, I didn't have to fulfill any warranty obligations.
So now I spend most of my time working on my Clovegarden.com food site (now 6756 indexed pages, 13,906 unindexed pages), doing my research into international cuisines, and doing my Musica Donavania events.
I've recently hooked up with the local Unitarian Universalist Church, because my own community is getting too small. I'm losing another couple who got burned out in Altidena and are moving to Denver. The Unitarian folks are very nice. They had me do a lecture on Paganism for one of the services and it was very well received. I made two conversions, easy ones, folks who just didn't know they were Pagans.
So life goes on, and is endlessly entertaining.
Besides, I don't even have a lawn, and my neighborhood no longer has kids.
Now I am seriously conflicted. My lifelong frugal self keeps admonishing me that I'm spending money like a drunken sailor, but somehow there is always more. Of course for me, "spending like a drunken sailor" is still pretty frugal.
That's why women have always ignored me. I display no outward evidence of having money, and particularly no propensity for spending it unwisely.
I still have a few clients left who won't let me go, so I'm still "working", but it's more a hobby than really working.
I tend a few very antique systems and software. I had to give one client a little attention this month. They are managing their machine shop with DOS software they've been using for maybe 30 years, or even more. Their server failed this month and I had to replace the power supply. I built that server 18 years ago, and it's run an early version Linux 24-7 with only about 24 hours downtime. My previous best was 12 years and still running when retired due to software change.
When I started my business (1984) much of my work was keeping obsolete systems functioning - DOS, SCO Xenix, Concurrent DOS, early network systems that even I have forgotten. This didn't work well for me then because clients associated me with the old system, so for a new system they went to someone else.
Oh Hell! I even had to work on an Apple 3. It ran Apple's "Sophisticated Operating System", abbreviated SOS, an amazingly appropriate designation.
I gave up having much to do with application software. I did mostly cabling, RS232 interfaces for medical testing labs (yes some of that stuff still uses RS232 to this day), networks, including Novel, communications, and servers, particularly Linux servers, and Internet equipment. I also built a lot of workstation PCs until the commercial ones became too cheap - and if anything went wrong with those I could charge all my time, I didn't have to fulfill any warranty obligations.
So now I spend most of my time working on my Clovegarden.com food site (now 6756 indexed pages, 13,906 unindexed pages), doing my research into international cuisines, and doing my Musica Donavania events.
I've recently hooked up with the local Unitarian Universalist Church, because my own community is getting too small. I'm losing another couple who got burned out in Altidena and are moving to Denver. The Unitarian folks are very nice. They had me do a lecture on Paganism for one of the services and it was very well received. I made two conversions, easy ones, folks who just didn't know they were Pagans.
So life goes on, and is endlessly entertaining.
