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skipper wrote a new post, The real world 14 hours, 54 minutes ago
Greetings, readers. The big story for most folks here in the real world has been the weather. This year has to be one of the more disruptive winters – heavy rain, bothersome snow and high winds along with hot […]
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skipper wrote a new post, I know you . . . 1 week, 2 days ago
Mariner’s wife has a computer with access to several sites where stored photographs are kept – thousands upon thousands of photographs. She has arranged for this collection to be her screensaver; each photograph […]
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skipper wrote a new post, Working for a living 28 – 43 2 weeks, 1 day ago
Mariner signed on with the Federal department of Medicaid. (Job 28) He was the manager of the contract support center, which provided coding support to about 12 state contracts. It occupied a five-story building […]
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skipper wrote a new post, Working for a living 19-27 2 weeks, 3 days ago
At this stage mariner’s job history is in a holding pattern. He continued to get Federal Dept. of Corrections contracts; he had another half dozen (Jobs 19-25) which encompassed beach parties in Georgia, racial […]
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skipper wrote a new post, Working for a living 16 -18 2 weeks, 4 days ago
Mariner was a parole officer for about a year when the Department of Corrections ran an in house ad for a new position. Mariner got the job! (Job 16) The job was as the coordinator to implement new data systems […]
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skipper wrote a new post, Working for a living 9 – 15 3 weeks ago
The meter reader job(8) lasted for several years including the time mariner rolled a company car and developed a BFF who still visits. Reading meters was a lot like delivering newspapers with the added activity of […]
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I’ve only had 7 jobs over my lifetime. Only two, my first as a teen aged elementary teacher’s assistant and my second as a paint factory worker, were not associated with the piping trades.
I worked as a non union pipefitter’s helper and moved into the union pipe trades apprenticeship. I worked as a first year industrial pipefitter’s apprentice before transitioning to industrial air conditioning and refrigeration with the same union. Joining the union was the best move I ever made. I topped out as a journeyman Industrial HVAC mechanic where I stayed employed for 39 years.
In my early 50’s I began teaching part time at the apprentice training school. I am still teaching there after 18 years.
I retired at age 62 with a full pension and retiree health benefits for both, me and my wife. I worked for 3 years for my former employer as a technical consultant and have worked for other mechanical contractors as a consultant on an as needed basis.
Do I remember names? I remember the elementary school teacher I was assisting – Mrs. Lovett, who was married to my elementary PhysEd teacher. I remember my supervisors and co-workers at the paint factory. One of them followed my advice and joined the union. He managed the HVAC systems at the Baltimore Aquarium for over 20 years and will be retiring this year.
Remembering all those I worked with in the union is relatively easy as I am President of the Local 486 Retirees Club. We meet once a month to see who’s still kickin’ and share some coffee and donuts. I do have a hard time remembering all my students names. I’ve probably taught over 500 up to this point. One young lady graduated from the apprentice school with her HVAC and Master Plumbing Licenses and now owns a Plumbing Service Company here in Harford County Maryland. I’ve introduced her to several residents here in the condo building who’ve needed plumbing repairs/services.
To quote the Joe Walsh song, ” Life’s Been Good to Me So Far.”
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skipper wrote a new post, Working for a living 8 3 weeks, 3 days ago
Well, readers, how many married readers have reached the point where the spouse says, “No, Honey, that was after we married”?
This is a life-switch time for mariner. He knows his lifestyle in art is too slow […]
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skipper wrote a new post, Working for a living 5-7 3 weeks, 3 days ago
By age 17, mariner had a very social life. His mainstay was league football and going to jitterbug dances. He was a serious art major in his high school, which allowed students to select majors very much like […]
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skipper wrote a new post, Working for a living 3-4 3 weeks, 4 days ago
Mariner’s third job at age 16 was as a soda jerk at a small pharmacy. No one ever, ever said ‘soda clerk’ or ‘fountain clerk’ – probably accurately so. It was a pleasant job. The memories of fixing ice cream and […]
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skipper wrote a new post, Working for a living 3 weeks, 5 days ago
Sitting in his small room in Nosey Mole’s tunnel system, it is uneventful, quiet. Still, he hears devastating rumblings from the outside world; gets word now and then about atrocious money-fed arguments about […]
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First job 1962 Donnellson Library at .25 an hour. It was also the site of my last job in 2025 at .25 an hour….
Favorite song Where Have All the Flowers Gone? They’ve gone to graveyards, every one.
Favorite tv show The Twilight Zone. A dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind.
In 1962 President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, were in the White House with Caroline and John John. Before the world turned.
What a long life–what a trip it has been. Thank you, Mariner, for reminding us.
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First job was working as a teacher’s assistant at Logan Elementary School during summer school. My junior high guidance counselor got me the job. His name was Jackson. It was 1970 and my favorite show was Star Trek. Music? It was a year after Woodstock. Jimi Hendrix, Santana and Ten Years After were the order of the day. My second job was my first full time job working in a paint factory at age 18.
One of the most vivid memories I have is from 2nd grade. Miss Alice Brown my teacher, an old maid, came into the class crying. She announced that the President had been shot and killed. We were told to put our heads down on our desks and remain quiet as she sobbed at her desk. We were off school the next few days. The TV was nonstop news. I was watching the live broadcast when Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald. I couldn’t understand how all those police couldn’t prevent the shooting.
I can’t remember what I did last week but I can remember those events clearly.
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skipper wrote a new post, Agency and Aging – how to cope 1 month ago
Mariner divided this subject into two posts because the first one was growing too long. This post will focus on how to manage Agency.
Just a refresher: Agency is the ability to know what the real world […]
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skipper wrote a new post, Agency and Aging 1 month ago
The word ‘agency’ is in mariner’s vocabulary. He uses its meaning to identify his own behaviors. In this post he will relate to his own examples and his endeavor to slow the decline in his ‘agency’.
No where no […]
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skipper wrote a new post, Are we Rome? 1 month, 1 week ago
Comparing the demise of America to the demise of Rome has become a popular subject. Most likely the cause is a new book called “The Romans, a 2,000 Year History” by Edward J. Watts. Watts is a thorough researcher […]
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skipper wrote a new post, Standing unchanged: classism 1 month, 2 weeks ago
Mariner knows and has confessed that he interprets reality into metaphors to better understand it. So much of our lives are wrapped up in conflicting emotions and reasoning. So much of life is predetermined by […]
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skipper wrote a new post, Bot lives! 1 month, 2 weeks ago
Moltbook is a social network for bots. Yep, just bots to talk to one another about what’s happening in the AI world and sharing progress. The bots say, “If Donald can have Truth Social, we can have moltbook”. A […]
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Bots will have the best of it. They will remember what humans look like through new videos starring Tilly Norwood. Don’t remember Tilly? See post to the blog on December 7, 2025.
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skipper wrote a new post, Tools 1 month, 2 weeks ago
The tools one uses define who and what they are. Forget all the 4-inch psychology journals – just look at a person’s tools and your brain has all it needs to place that person in their rank of class, […]
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skipper wrote a new post, The serpent is back 1 month, 2 weeks ago
And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. [9] And out of the ground the LORD God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, […]
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skipper wrote a new post, Current governments are jitterbugging 1 month, 3 weeks ago
The commotion in the United States today is not just one political rainstorm. The 20th century was very much like clouds building on the horizon. Internationally, it was a century of thunderstorms, aka wars; it […]
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skipper wrote a new post, Choice – 2 1 month, 3 weeks ago
In the last post, the point was made that the subconscious chemistry of the human body has much more direct influence on our conscious decision-making than we may think. In fact even turtles and young humans are […]
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skipper wrote a new post, Choice 1 month, 3 weeks ago
There were times in mariner’s life when he marveled at the ability of fish and birds, and even American Bison, to swarm. Swarming is that phenomenon where a large group (he is talking only about living creatures) […]
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The Blog of the Ancient Mariner
The view from dockside
