Puzzle Solver
I have always loved solving puzzles of any kind and searching for the truth. I still have the paperback Toll House cookbook I earned as a child from solving a puzzle.
Solving Puzzles the Engineering Way
I was trained as an Electrical Engineer. My degree included minors in Math and Physics. But I was hired to work in a new field of Engineering called “Software”. I learned to program in Fortran, Pascal, and Hexidecimal in college. NASA used Fortran and Octal in their simulators and Hexidecimal was used for solving puzzles when the software didn’t work.
I explored Space in the virtual world for the first half of my career. In the second half, I worked in management and on spaceship flight software.
I spent 28 years as a NASA engineer when engineers weren’t normally female. I worked with amazing intelligent people and most of the time thought I had the best job in the world. There is never a dull moment with Congressional changes every two years and Presidental changes every 6 or 12 years.
Solving Puzzles the Genealogy Way
After retirement, I was able to spend more time on a hobby I inherited from my mother’s aunt and my father’s uncle – genealogy. I also was able to spend more time volunteering with the Daughters of the American Revolution and help start the local Society of the Children of the American Revolution. In both of these organizations, I was primarily involved in potential members’ genealogy. This requires searching through history and historical documents to place ordinary people in their time and place.
Traveling – A New Kind of Puzzle
My husband’s favorite hobby is traveling and we have done a lot of it since my retirement – until COVID of course. Frequently we combined travel with genealogy. We have learned a lot about different countries, cultures, and the history of the places we visited.
Rare Diseases – Now I Am the Puzzle
Doctors come in three types: 1) puzzle solvers. 2) the fearful, and 3) the watchful. The puzzle solvers know that they don’t know everything but are willing to learn and experiment. The fearful are dangerous. They are afraid of things they don’t know and are afraid that their prestige will be reduced by admitting they don’t know an answer. This is sometimes referred to as the God complex. The watchful are aware they don’t know everything, but also know when a problem is out of their expertise. They refer patients to specialists and watch.
I have always tried to limit my doctors to puzzle solvers, but lately, some of those have become watchers. Rare neurological disorders and diseases seem to bring out the best or the worst in doctors. Not all have the mind or patience to find these pieces in the puzzle.
You can find out about rare diseases at the National Institute of Health’s Genetic and Rare Diseases Information Center (GARD).