Lot to admire there.

I'm still 'Ready for Hillary' but I like EW a lot too. She's no slouch.

My first computer was an HP, with DOS. Slow as molasses and cost $1200, but back then

it seemed a wonder to behold. Why, you could set a problem for it at night, go to bed, and next morning there was your answer!

Before he died, I had a very good married friend who happened to be a psychiatrist;

We shared certain strong interests which his wife didn't. Knowing her husband to be an honorable and loyal man, she seemed relieved to know she was off the hook where their interests diverged. Larry the Shrink, as I always called him, always believed the happiest marriages were between people who didn't really need each other but preferred to bond by choice.

Unfortunately too many people confuse perceived need with love, and you're right - some will viciously prune out anyone who could ever pose a threat in their wildest imaginations. I always try to show the wife of a married male friend the greatest respect and consideration, hoping to allay her natural fears. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. But I understand because my first and last husband turned out to be such a bed hopper.

Meanwhile I try to follow Larry the Shrink's advice in life. To love everyone (or as many as possible) as appropriate but not to think for one second that I can't do fine w/o any particular individual. I believe it helps me to avoid clinginess. Some people will like that because I'm low maintenance. Others won't like it if they're the insecure type who needs to exercise emotional control and can't cope w/o it.

My final point being, learn to love yourself enough, and then you can love others better w/o needing them too much. What will be, will be.... and you can be fine with that. Why suffer needlessly over things which are out of your control?

You learned a lot from those early experiences. Perhaps most of all,

the knowledge that you could overcome. As an Irish-American I don't suffer from any crippling overall inferiority complex, and I'm usually pretty good at stuff. But I can tell you that the two times I tried to assemble a swag lamp kit, I blew them out. The concept and directions seemed crystal clear, and I was confident that I'd done such a simple operation correctly. But you can't argue with two disasters like that.

While I'd like to blame the situation on severe dyslexia, it seems best to reserve that excuse for special occasions which catch me off guard. Can't claim I'm not forewarned about anything remotely electrical. So I stick to plugging in and unplugging, turning on and off, and operating - nothing more. Back in the stone age I learned DOS easily and once even knew how to code. Don't ask me why I can't assemble a swag lamp kit.

We did a lot of things w/o benefit of clothing in the 1960's.

Physics was the only college class I had to repeat, but I chose to even though on my first run

I squeaked by with a D. I could regurgitate all kinds of information but understood little of it. The professor was a misogynist beast. Even though I obviously never became a physicist of any sort, I'm still glad I redid the course with a different teacher who loved the subject and communicated it well. I still like to read about it on a 'for dummies' level.

Enjoyed your post.

Yes, you are - frighteningly good.

I'd try to follow in your footsteps, except if I built a computer it would look like the wife of Frankenstein's Monster - and work just about as well. I totally envy your talent and wish you were my brother so I could hornswoggle you into making me such a computer.

Having driven a truck very briefly, back in the stone age after the first big dot com bust, I've

thoroughly enjoyed this informative OP. I've always favored certain personality red flags to watch out for with new acquaintances, and how they behaved around 18-wheelers was a major tipoff. You can imagine how many doomed relationships that spared me.

Despite the technology advances, you guys have a tremendously exhausting and dangerous job.

Back when I drove my moving van from AZ to where I retired in the remote areas of flyover country, it was a terrible trip for me since the man who bought my little ranch turned out to be a drug dealer who tried to run me out early, etc. I was half dead from exhaustion and stress before I even started to drive here. Because I was also pulling a trailer with my van on it behind the biggest Penske available, I looked for truck stops along the way. People were friendly but not in a way to concern me at all. And every single time I went to pay my check, the lady at the register always said it had already been taken care of by 'someone'. There seemed to be a great concern that I was fleeing a bad situation - which was true, though not like they probably supposed.

The only personal trouble I encountered? Once in the ladies room, a couple of lot rats dissed me and I felt an extremely rare but genuine desire to thrash them within an inch of their lives. Always been proud of myself for holding back, because even though I've never been over 5' tall, those 2 b's were in stilettos and never would've stood a snowball's chance in hell. I was wearing boots, and my last nerve was about to snap.

Stardust.... that's a nice thought, since the 'stuff of the universe' is pretty consistent.

I've always found the imposition of ashes very comforting.

I agree.

What women suffer in some cultures saddens me. Often they aren't even allowed to urinate except at night under cover of darkness. I realize privacy concerns cause a lot of this, but they could at least be given a small curtained area to relieve themselves at need.