Troops list

For almost 10 years I worked at the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper.
It was a post-stroke job. Started as an unpaid intern at first. It was part-time for quite a while, but then they doubled my wage and made me full-time, so I could get off Social Security Disability.
It also turned into the best job I’d ever had.
Pay was piddling, so a job-counselor at my post-stroke rehab offered to try and get my job back driving bus.
I told him I wasn’t interested.
Driving bus would have paid gobs more, but I enjoyed working at that newspaper.
Toward the end, I was back to part-time, and updating the newspaper’s daily web-site.
I had the leeway to do whatever was necessary to make that thing fly.
Our web-service, or us, often screwed up, or they just plain bombed, so it might take extra time to fix things.
I also could fix things at home, since I had the tools needed on my home ‘pyooter. I’d view it at home to see if it had flown right, since the time needed for it to publish was about the time needed for me to drive home.
—Although starting from scratch meant going back to the newspaper.
I was always pushing the envelope; trying to fly as many pictures as possible.
I don’t remember exactly how our web-service charged.
They seemed to have a megabyte display limit, but I wasn’t testing it.
I’d figure the time needed by me to fly another picture, and fly as many as I could.
I was always accused of flying too many pictures, but my take was it was a visual medium, and if I could afford the time, I might as well do them.
The newspaper was running a huge listing of troops overseas, and wouldn’t have published that list on their web-site.
But I figured it would only take me 20 minutes or so to prep it, since it was already a ‘pyooter-file anyway.
So I’m flyin’ it.
One day everything had flown right, and I was done the web-site in about three hours.
A grizzled ex-Marine was at the receptionist window as I was putting on my rubbers.
“I see your newspaper is publishing a list of troops overseas,” he said. “We at the Veterans of Foreign Wars would like to have it.”
“Hold it!” I interjected. “I just flew that list on our web-site. It’s a ‘pyooter-file. All somebody has to do is copy/paste it. They won’t even have to type it.”
Utterly buffaloed, grizzled ex-Marine trudged back out. —Without the printed list.
Back to the VFW and get some computer-geek to do what I had suggested.

I had a stroke October 26, 1993.

For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service, the transit-bus operator in Rochester, NY.

“‘Pyooter” is computer.

RE: “Megabyte.....” —Equals a thousand computer bytes. Text isn’t much, but a picture has thousands of bytes. Our web-site had a megabyte display limit.