| Mature men |
Mature men The first one I built was a rectangular device with a bunch of solenoids, all wired to a basic computer device. This thing was designed to test new keyboards by simulating human fingers, one solenoid with a rubber tip over each key, so that under control of the computer one could program the device to exercise the keyboard using a statistical program to determine which key to press and when, then analyze the keystrokes for accuracy and failure rate. I discovered I was very good at designing programs and procedures to thoroughly exercise a device. I wondered how much this particular talent had to do with my days on the farm, pushing a John Deere haybaler to the limit. Kelly, on the other hand, was involved in the development of telecommunications devices. By today's standards they were primitive, but the industry had to start somewhere, and Kelly was there, on the leading edge. We both absolutely loved our jobs. The labs were well equipped, the people were very professional and competent, and probably most important for us, more than willing to share their knowledge and experience. Socially mature men was quite another story. From almost the first day we missed the friendly, somewhat protected environment of academia. There were very few people who knew about our relationship, and the atmosphere indicated very strongly that we should keep mature men that way. I think when you're Gay you develop a sixth sense that tells you when you should come out and when not to. It's probably not always accurate, but it's all we had to work with. |