I wrote several articles about my life over the past 20 years, but they are all in my "Engineer-speak" and "Just-the-facts" writing style. One story which somehow escaped being posted to Genea-Musings but is in my unpublished memoir and the published StoryWorth book is this one.
I wondered if my AI-assistant Anthropic Claude could turn it into an engaging story about my life in 1983 when I was age 40. Here is Claude's description:
1983, A Year of Balance and Adventure: Randy at 40
In October 1983, Randy celebrated his 40th birthday in the Chula Vista home on Via Trieste where he and his wife Linda had built their life together—a home they would still occupy more than four decades later. After 13 years of marriage, Randy had found a rhythm that many chase but few achieve: a life rich with family, meaningful work, community involvement, and personal pursuits.
The household buzzed with the energy of two young daughters. Nine-year-old Lori was starting her softball journey on an American Girl team at Loma Verde park, while seven-year-old Tami navigated second grade. The cul-de-sac at the end of their street became an impromptu playground where bicycles, kickball, and whiffle ball filled summer evenings. On weekends, neighborhood barbecues transformed the street into a volleyball court, the net strung up as neighbors gathered.
Linda orchestrated the complex logistics of modern motherhood—shuttling daughters to two different schools, shepherding school work, volunteering in their classes, leading Girl Scout troops, serving as a church deacon, lunches with friends, and maintaining friendships that stretched across distances with letters and phone calls. Her days were a carefully choreographed dance of cooking, teaching, cleaning, and nurturing.
Meanwhile, Randy was in his 16th year at Rohr Industries, where he managed a team of ten as an Aero/Thermo Group Engineer. His work on engine nacelle projects took him across the Atlantic multiple times to Derby, England, collaborating with Rolls Royce on the RB211-535 project and also working on a business jet initiative with Cessna. He was an expert on thrust reverser design and performance. It was during one of these English trips that Randy experienced what would be both his first and last hot air balloon ride with his friend Eric Smith—a memory that stood out among the many business meetings.
Beyond work and family, Randy wove himself into the fabric of his community. As a newly appointed Elder at Chula Vista Presbyterian Church, he served on the Communications and Fellowship Committee. He and Linda were active in a church social group and devoted time to Presbyterian Marriage Encounter, scheduling events that strengthened other couples' relationships.
That summer, the family embarked on an epic road trip in their new light blue 1983 Oldsmobile, traversing the West Coast from San Diego to Victoria, British Columbia, and back again. They stayed with friends, or camped in a tent, and occasionally stayed in a motel. The journey read like a love letter to the American West: the granite cliffs and majestic waterfalls of Yosemite, camping beneath Shasta Mountain next to a railroad track (big mistake!), a cold water cabin near the sapphire depths of Crater Lake, the lush Columbia River valley with waterfalls, and the misty shores of the Pacific Northwest. They visited family and friends along the way—cousin Bonnie in Seattle, DX enthusiast Bruce in Seattle, and Dxer Nick and his family in Victoria. The return trip wound through Seaside, Florence and the Rogue River on the Oregon coast, down through the towering redwoods of Northern California, and included stops in San Francisco to see Linda's father and brother before the final stretch home through Santa Barbara.
When evening settled over Via Trieste, Randy indulged his fascination with DXing—the art of listening for distant AM radio stations. For an hour or two most nights, and sometimes in the midnight or pre-dawn hours of weekends, he tuned into the mysterious world of Medium Wave propagation. His expertise was such that he contributed articles on radio wave propagation to DX newsletters, sharing his knowledge with fellow enthusiasts scattered across the country.
As Padres and Chargers fans, Randy and Linda regularly climbed to the upper deck of San Diego Stadium for baseball games, cheering alongside thousands of other San Diegans. They watched what games they could on television, their sports fandom woven into the seasonal rhythms of California life.
The year brought profound sorrow as well. In May, Randy's father succumbed to prostate cancer after a year of declining health, his final days marked by a blocked bladder and a fatal heart attack in the hospital, followed by a memorial service and burial at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. In the wake of this loss, Randy and Linda made the weekly pilgrimage to Point Loma to help his mother with shopping, repairs, and the simple gift of presence.
Perhaps in response to the stress and grief, Randy committed to taking better care of himself. He began an exercise program with his Rohr colleague Dennis, pounding the pavement in walks and runs until he shed weight, eventually reaching 180 pounds.
When asked to describe himself at 40, Randy's answer was simple and sincere: he was happy. Happy as a son, husband, father, worker, coach, parishioner, DXer and friend. He tried to have fun with everybody he encountered. And in 1983, standing at the midpoint of his life in a house on Via Trieste, surrounded by the people and pursuits that mattered most, Randy could say with certainty: life was good.
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Can Google NotebookLM turn this into an Infographic and Video Overview? Of course!! The Infographic is at the top of this post, and the video is here:
Claude followed my blog post very well, and also added some perspective, interpretation and summation to the narrative.
Links to my blog posts about using Artificial Intelligence are on my Randy's AI and Genealogy page. Links to AI information and articles about Artificial Intelligence in Genealogy by other genealogists are on my AI and Genealogy Compendium page.
Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver
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