I once floated a keg of beer
in a tub of ice at the NCO Beach Club
on Okaloosa
Island. I was a technical writer
for Vitro Services, in Fort Walton Beach.
They
did work at Eglin AFB, and for the Navy.
Maintained dish antennas for satellite
tracking stations.
I worked on the Navy Bridge Annunciator System (NBAS),
an
intrusion detection system we built and installed at Navy bases.
The keg party
was for shipping a system. I had gone on a site survey
and helped write an engineering-installation
plan for the installation
and acceptance-testing. I was working on a systems-level
technical manual
written to the equipment level of detail. Maintenance procedures
were
remove-and-replace, but not repair. That was depot-level.
I was good.
I was very good. I wrote READFEST '76.
By analogy with a parachute meet at Hurlburt
Field,
Jumpfest '76. I took Owen with me to the jump meet.
Balder wasn't born
yet. But Brenda was pregnant.
I had a college-degree job. I thought
I had died
and gone to heaven.