Comprehending Human Time Scale

[bjarvis]

Yesterday, on a whim, I posted a photo on Facebook for Throwback Thursday, a pic from a time in my past. Many found it amusing because I've changed a lot over the following years: I've lost most of my hair, what I have is more grey than brown (esp the beard), the glasses are a bit dated, and wow, I could wear a pair of tight jeans!


In the hours following, I took a closer look at the photo and came to some moderately disturbing conclusions.

1. That photo was from July 2, 1992, I would have been 25 at the time. I'm now only a few months away from my 50th birthday so that pic was taken when I was half my current age.
   
2. I've had my mustache since the summer of 1985. That makes it 31 years since my upper lip has seen the light of day.
   
3. My chin has been bearded since February, 1991: 25 years. (My cheeks were covered from Feb 1991 until July 2000 when I trimmed down to a goatee; I've since grown out the full beard again but can't recall the precise date that happened.)
   
4. I still have that watch although I don't wear it any longer.
   
5. I still wear glasses, but I got my first contact lenses about a week after that photo, giving me an option on corrective eyewear. Of course, these days both my glasses & contacts are bifocals...
   
6. At the time of the photo, I was living in Toronto, maintaining Sun Microsystems equipment for Psychology, University of Toronto. Sun is now a division of Oracle; I'm still maintaining Sun servers albeit newer systems in private industry rather than academia.
   
7. John Schrag and I were renting a condo at 15 McMurrich Street, Toronto, but we had become joint homeowners of 222 Berkeley Street (Dundas & Parliament, Toronto) about a week before that photo was taken. Several years later, I sold my share to John as I moved to the US. John later sold that townhouse and now co-owns a house with his husband Chris near Pape & Danforth in Toronto.
   
8. In another 1.5 months, it will be 20 years since I moved to the US. It doesn't seem that long ago.
   

On one hand, it's been a long & crazy ride. On the other, it doesn't seem that long. And I keep thinking, is that all there is/was?

Comments

[tdjohnsn.livejournal.com]

Wait...it's a couple years until your 50th isn't it? I thought we were four years apart in age, not just two, and I've just barely turned 52.

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

I'm 49 right now, turning 50 in January. Yup, you're ahead of me, but only by a little bit.

[cuyahogarvr.livejournal.com]

Per #3 - the full beard was grown out during our power outage as a result of the very first snowpocalypse since my moving to Maryland.

[tdjohnsn.livejournal.com]

Weird. I wonder how I managed to get that confused? I've been thinking you are the same age as my brother all this time, but that's not the case at all.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's what you looked like when I first met you (about a year before that photo). Hot then, hot now, if not exactly in the same way.

I've had my mustache since the summer of 1985. That makes it 31 years since my upper lip has seen the light of day.

Hah. I've had my mustache since the fall of 1966 (i.e., shortly before you were born).

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

psych.utoronto.edu ? Or was it .ca ?

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

I haven't thought about that in a couple of decades...

It was psych.toronto.edu and psych.utoronto.ca... both worked.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

* eternally grateful *