Hello World!

The famous text for all programmers learning a new language!

About Me

I am a retired 69 year old married man now living in Cotacachi Ecuador. I spent the first 65 years of my life going to school (graduating from M.I.T and Duke University with engineering degrees) and then working as an engineer. Mostly doing software engineering - which is very strange as I never studied software formally at all. This is because in my age group there was no such thing as computer science degrees. That came much later!

Anyway - in my working days I was blessed with having good bosses - and fun projects to work on for most of my career. I got to work on software for nuclear power plant simulators (remember “The China Syndrome” with Jack Lemon and Jane Fonda?), and then I moved into working on the software that develops personal treatment plans for cancer radiation treatments. In this field I worked for the last thirty years of my career for several different companies ranging in size from very big companies to a very small startup company. I am very proud of the work I did. And I consider myself very lucky that I was able to earn a good living my entire life doing something I mostly enjoyed. But I am also very happy to be retired now and not have to worry about work schedules and planning meetings, etc.

Of course over 40 years in software I saw a lot of changes. I always joked toward the end that there was no way I could get a job at the company I was already working for because I had no idea how some of the latest stuff worked. And towards the end I never bothered to learn it because by the time I did it had changed again anyway.

On my 65’th birthday my wife and I flew to Ecuador with a one way ticket. That was a little over four years ago and when you look at where we are now it is hard to believe what my wife (mostly) has been able to do for us. We live in an absolutely beautiful home with beautiful gardens all around and we are surrounded by such a great community of friends here in Cotacachi. Busier than when I was working.

I keep busy mostly by working with our local pickleball group here in Cotacachi. I am a lifetime tennis player who has switched to pickleball here just because it is a far more practical game here. (paddles and balls are affordable - and no need to build a permanent court to start playing). And as with tennis - I have made many friends playing the game.

I also adopted the hobby of learning to play saxophone shortly before leaving the US - and I continue to learn here in Cotacachi. Fortunate to have two great teachers - Ben Davis in Roswell Georgia and Gandhy Rubio here in Cotacachi. It is great fun - and it’s good for me. Progress is slow as far as actually getting much better - but as Ben told me on my first day, “Be like a kid who doesn't know they sound awful! You just have to keep blowing into your horn. Don’t ever stop”. Very good advice!

You may not believe it - but in Cotacachi we have a sax player named Gandhy and a guitar player named Socrates. Both good friends of mine.

Sometimes it seems like I have been able to live two lives. My life in the US seems so long ago now - but of course I still am in touch with my two sons who still live there as well as many friends. And the news from the US? The less said about that the better I guess! I’ll just say I am with the side that thinks science is a good thing and facts do matter.

I do not know (yet) exactly what it is that my friend @beelzael has signed me up for! But I do have some thoughts on various subjects that I want to share somewhere besides Facebook. And I look forward to reading and commenting on various subjects here.

“Be well. Do good work. Keep in touch!”. Garrison Keiller.