What simple pleasures of life do you truly enjoy?

I was always fascinated by automobiles. Since I was a child, when I used to sit behind the wheel of my father's car or my uncle Manolo's 4-wheel-drive truck of Crusellas and Company, distributors of Palmolive products, where he worked and thus took a truck home for lunch sometimes, while sitting on my father's or Manolo's lap I steered the car in the dirt road leading from the highway to my grandfather's house in El Cotorro, through driving the car myself when I could barely reach the pedals in that same stretch, to getting my driver's license at age 16 right after finishing secondary school and going to work at La Selecta, Calle San Rafael 712 between Marqués González y Lucerna, La Habana, driving and running errands most days, driving my father's car on evenings and weekends, to finally having my own car.

When I came to Miami in 1960 I quickly bought a 1951 Plymouth, later a 1953 Ford wagon, followed by a 1953 Chevrolet Bel-Air, all of which I used to deliver bread door-to-door in the mornings, food canteens in the afternoons, driving others around, including 16-year-old Miriam and her mother sometimes; then buying a 1953 Mercedes 170 in 1962 in Germany, later a 1956 Buick Special, traded for a 1955 Mercury, which I abandoned in Belgium when its automatic transmission gave out. Finally, I bought a brand-new 1964 Volkswagen Beetle, which I shipped home to New York.

Later on, in Miami, I began collecting antique cars, including a 1951 Pontiac with Hydramatic transmission, a 1967 Citroen DS21, a 1953 Packard Clipper, a 1955 Packard Patrician that had sold originally in Honduras, with the speedometer in KM/H and no heater, a 1956 Packard Patrician with electric door locks (first time ever) and the prize possession, a 1956 Packard Caribbean convertible. Much later I also had a 1958 Ford Retractable and a 1960 Bentley. All became useless when I could not even look at them.

I have also always liked gadgets, recorders, video, computers, so I took readily to adaptive software such as JAWS in 1989, as well as other equipment I use consistently.

After beginning my eye disease at age 28, soon thereafter not been able to read printed pocket books as I used to, I discovered the Library of Congress, which provided books for the blind, first in low RPM vinyl records, then on half-speed four-track cassettes, followed by special cassettes when converting to digital, finally being able to download books from internet that play on specified players, their own or others, such as the Victor Reader Stream, Milestone and others.

Now, in the limited life of a blind senior citizen, I have learned better use of computers, to program, create websites, have my own private server and several domains, spend my time mostly either in my computer or listening to talking books.

Gone are the days of travelling, another activity I enjoyed and that luckily I was able to rejoice in more than most. Another activity gone by the wayside is watching TV or going to the movies, although I still enjoy the great variety of described audio movies I have.

For the last 15 years, we have published podcasts, now six every week, using software I wrote and still works:
https://EIberoAmerica.com

Since 2013 we have had internet radio stations, first https://radiogeneral.com and now others such as https://OcalaRadio.com and others you can find at https://responder.us

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