I grew up with two working parent, long before cell phones, the internet and even cable TV. I was a quintessential latchkey kid. My parents had no idea where I was all day, nor did they seem to really care.
This is who I am.
I was born in ’67. That makes me Gen X, not a "Boomer", no matter how many times some kid on the internet tries to reclassify me because I own a house and remember life before Google. We were the last feral generation. Home alone. We fought in the schoolyard, not the comment section. No safe spaces, no trigger warnings, and nobody was allergic to gluten until it became a personality. We mind our own business, so leave us alone.
I’m a 12th-generation Franco-Albertan. My people have been on this continent since 1634. I’m a professional engineer, now retired after more than 35 years in oil and gas. Amoco, Talisman, pipelines, gas plants, the real work that keeps the lights on and the trucks moving. Husband. Dad to four adults who turned out fine without helicopter parenting. Adventurer and naturalist when I’m not fact-checking nonsense. Rural Alberta. Live and let live.
I call things as they are. The world’s appetite for oil hasn’t gone away, and pretending Net Zero is a plan instead of a slogan doesn’t make the barrels disappear. I got suspended once under the old Twitter regime for saying obvious things (Elon put the account back). I'm quick to block idiots. I don’t perform feelings for strangers. I’m not the bigger person (that's usually sanctimonious in my eye), and I don’t owe anyone an apology for still using words the way we used them when we were kids (i.e. retard, gay, pussy).
That’s the whole package. Competent, a little cynical, grounded, and done with lecture from people who have no real life experience.
Thanks for reading this. If you agree, have a nice day.
If you don't, fuck off.