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Before the main event, here are the runner ups –

The physical:

Climbing the least interesting fourteener in Colorado

Completing four Portland Marathons (notice finished, not run)

Bench pressed more than my weight

The intellectual:

Ph.D. in mathematics (possibly the weakest granted by the University Of Oregon)

Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, the highest achievement for actuaries

None of those come close to my greatest achievement – meeting and marrying Sharon.  In 1970 I was visiting Eugene Oregon after my first year teaching math at Morehouse College in Atlanta Georgia.  While hanging out with friend Jerry, I met his girlfriend’s roommate Sharon.  I had a few intense relationships earlier which had gone up in flames and had given up on love.  Our attraction was immediate and neither of us had any impediments to full steam ahead.  Shortly after I headed back to Atlanta she joined me there.  I proposed that we marry to save on taxes (that didn’t turn out), she agreed, and we got a license and went to a justice of the peace.  She told me that her teacher friends thought it was rushed by pregnancy, but no, we were experienced and old enough to know that we were ready.

That was 1970 the day after Thanksgiving a few months after meeting.  To the extent that we celebrate our anniversary we use the day after Thanksgiving without knowing the exact date.  Fifty-three years later, we have had our bumps along the way.  I’m not always easy to get along with.  She’s heard all of my rants about government and taxes too often.  Our politics differ, she’s left handed, I’m right handed, she likes drinks cooler than I do, and food less spicy.

Over the past fifty-three years we’ve made it through changed professions – I taught college and she taught grammar school, then I was a life insurance actuary and she was pension actuary.  After Atlanta, we’ve lived in Louisville Kentucky, Denver Colorado, Los Angeles, the San Francisco area, and finally Lake Oswego Oregon.

Our relative tranquility has been helped by a lack of children and adequate money.  We escaped those two of the things that frequently cause problems and friction.  Neither of us have serious addictions – I can quit peanut butter anytime, and she could live without avocados.

Many things keep us together – a series of fine feline friends going back almost fifty years, potato chips, beer, coffee, tea, a lack of extremism, boring personalities, music (I’m a rocker, she’s a talented musician), and dancing.

This is titled my greatest achievement, but she should get most of the credit, particularly because as my editor she will read this.  She does the metaphorical heavy lifting (cooking and organizing), while I do the physical heavy lifting, and waste money by breaking plumbing.  People (including members of my family) wonder how I managed to get together with and stay with her.  The only answer that I have is that she likes short guys.

Appears in Pure Slush Lifespan -Achievement. An appreciation of Sharon for fifty-three years of taking care of business.