1968 - Yoga, Hinduism, study of Sanskrit, Astrology
1969 - Hinduism, Astrology
1970 - As above, plus Photography. In November, began work part-time for my Uncle Charles.
1971-73 - As above, plus beach bum. Lots of beaches and mountains with Julie. Abandoned the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna for the Gospel of Thomas.
1974 - Construction slowdown affecting my uncle's business prompted my relocation to SF. Had a wonderful "aha!" moment while reading The Seth Material. Began work at Crocker Bank, One Montgomery Street, in spite of Molly Hockett's prediction. Lots of photography, and Hinduism.
1975 - Lived and breathed photography. Hinduism, too.
1976 - Coming up for air From Hinduism. Beginning of China period.
1977 - Quit Crocker, went to work for China Books & Periodicals. USCPFA. Doing lots of photography.
1978 - Met Sandy. November: Sandy moved in. Quit China Books at year-end, and went back to Crocker, temporarily.
1979 - Helped Sandy prep for her Second Class and First Class FCC licences. We moved to Tucson, AZ for her job. We were married on Dec. 8, 1979. Tough job search for me. Hired by Unicopy.
1980 - We were still living in Tucson. Restoring antique radios. Flea Markets. Studied electronics at Pima Valley CC.
1981 - Moved to Barcelona at mid-year. Taught in two language schools, many adventures.
1982 - Easter vacation in Ibiza. Finished contract at Inlingua in July. Studying the books of Silo, and translating one of them. Traveled through eleven countries of Europe. Returned to US in September and traveled across the country by bus for 30 days. Late '82 - took hourly job at Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
1983 - Job at FRBSF became permanent. Living on Chenery Street in SF. Lived and breathed computers and BASIC programming, lots of time at nude beaches (Sandy often went along).
1984 - Changed departments at the Fed. Applied myself to mastering the automated accounting system. Still doing lots of photography.
1985 - Much the same, emerging as the department expert in the automated system. May have been the year when I took some conversion instructions at a Conservative synagogue.
1986 - Was accomplishing amazing things at the Fed. Near year-end, Sandy and I bought a house in Pacifica, which we moved into early the next year.
1987 - Sandy and I were now living in Pacifica, and I was commuting to the Fed. It may have been at this time that I started my project to translate the body of poetic work of Lalla of Kashmir.
1988 - Sandy and I began our studies at New College of California. While there I worked on a Senior Project to analyze the catchwords in the Gospel of Thomas.
1989 - Sandy and I completed our studies at New College. It had taken 25 years, but I finally had a BA, in Interdisciplinary Humanities. At the Fed, I was promoted to Project Analyst.
1990 - I can't explain it, but I dove head first into the occult and neopaganism. Still doing great things at the Fed.
1991-95 - Much the same, and continued work on the Lalla project. In November of 1995, I made my first attempt at retirement, but it turned out to be premature. Sandy and I moved to North Carolina, settling in Brevard, Transylvania Co.
1996 - It was in this year that I first put my home computer on-line on the Internet, which tended to change everything. Lots of old-time music.
1997 - Social life, real-estate deals, old-time music.
1998 - Sandy and I started our own business, Papyrus Copy Center. Part of this was that I had to learn offset printing, which I did the hard way: OJT.
1999 - Much the same, very busy. Not enough profit to justify the very hard work and long hours.
2000 - Sandy convinced me that we needed to return to California, where we could earn a decent living. That is what we did, leaving Brevard, NC on an icy February morning. That June, although I hadn't planned on it, I went back to work at the Fed. We lived in an apartment in Albany.
2001-2004 - Working in the Fed's IT department, specifically in Information Security. Moved to an apartment in Pacifica in 2002. Lots of long walks on the beach, with hot chocolate purchased on the pier afterwards.. Took an early retirement package, thus starting my real retirement, and moved to Portland, OR, in September 2004. Still Lalla. Still neopaganism. Still photography.
2005-2007 - Much the same, time for my passions. Was also working on a constructed language (conlang), Almensk. Also created a beautiful artlang, Romanyol. In 2007, Sandy and I bought a house in Martinez, CA, where we lived through 2012.
2008-2012 - Hot tub, sunbathing, gardening, Sandy's art. In 2010 I began a project to translate a five-book series of books by Maria de Naglowska from French to English, for Inner Traditions. This would keep me very busy for the next three years, to Sandy's chagrin. They were beautiful books, though.
2013-2019 - Adventures in Uruguay. Started poetry blog in October 2016. Created the Udugi conlang in 2018. Returned to the US in late April 2019, bought a car and a house on the Gulf coast of Florida, in Pasco Co. That's where we are now.
(Memoir to be continued.)
Text and image © 2020 by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler.
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