Sunday, August 7, 2022

Snippets from the reunion

"I busted my ass earning every dollar. It only seems right that I work just as hard to avoid spending that dollar."

  • R: "I plan to retire Dec 31, 2022"
  • A: "What happens to the vacation you don't use?"
  • R: "They pay me for it"
  • A: "How much vacation do you get a year?"
  • R: "Five weeks" (R is 69 years old)
  • A: "You might consider retiring January 2, 2023 if they 'refresh' your vacation allotment at the New Year you will get paid for the five weeks of vacation they owe you."
  • R: "Golly, I never thought of that"

"The day after I retired, Chrissy asked me to change the leaking faucet in the kid's bathroom.

Three months later, I was still working on it, having torn up 400 square-feet of flooring and sub-flooring chasing rotted pipes....and almost as much drywall replacing wiring..."

"The old men with little dogs lasted the longest. I would see them out every morning and afternoon, regardless of the weather. Walking their dogs. Complaining about their wives and kids.

Those little dogs gave those old men's lives purpose and a metronome for doing something every day."

"Greta lost her 87 year-old dad last year.

He dropped off the Buick at Discount Tire and saw a Wendy's on the other side of Van Dyke. He decided to sprint across the seven lanes of traffic and eat a Frosty. He didn't make it."

"I work until I am tired and then it is nap-time. I pick it up the next day"

"I have been volunteering at a project that takes furniture donations and uses them to furnish repo-ed houses that are rented to homeless people..."

"An anthology of Haunted Libraries? I can't imagine....well, OK, I can. I cannot tell you about how many patrons I wanted to throttle"

"The problem with the foster care system is that foster parents are given stipends for day-care for foster kids but those stipends are not available to their biological mothers. The court removes kids from their biological family because their mother cannot get a job and care for them...because she cannot afford day-care. But then they give the foster parents free day-care..."

"People with jobs are beaten to a bloody-pulp working sixty or seventy hours a week while people without jobs are given benefits that (sometimes) are more than what working people get."

"Miss W is kind of weird but she is cool. She doesn't freak out if you are having a bad day" overheard by a speech-therapist who works with middle-school kids. High praise indeed.

"To absent companions! (followed by a shot of 15 year Glenfiddich Scotch from the absent companion's stash)"

All of the out-of-town visitors swung through the facility and paid their respects to Mom, the de-facto Matron of the clan. Selfies were taken and will be loaded into  digital picture frame and shuffled for her future enjoyment.

One visitor commented that it is unusual for a family to bow their heads for 90 seconds while "Uncle Phil" said Grace before food was served. Uncle Phil didn't duck, bob or weave. He plowed ahead and laid a straight furrow which included frequent mention of "God" and "Jesus" and "the Holy Spirit" and "blessing" and such without hesitation or apology.

Three generations were in attendance and a fourth (Mom) was there in spirit.

A neighbor came over and took the group-photo.

It was not a blow-out, best-reunion-ever, but it was satisfying and renewed our family.

7 comments:

  1. Times like that are good for the soul.

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  2. It is good to keep those reunions going. In our family, when the Grandparents pass, the family reunions slow down considerably. Grandma is the motivation - they gotta love on their grand kids. After their passing, it is mainly weddings and funerals. Long ago, my maternal Grandma held quilting parties and Christmas tamale manufacture. A lot of female 'clucking' and gossip, with the kids underfoot. Good times indeed.

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  3. Tradition! Good on you, getting that picture frame set up. Your mom will be gazing at that a lot more than you know. It would be good to load up pix of your dad and younger times, when you were better-looking, too ~ :)

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    1. My bride suggested adding captions to the photos in case Mom's memory needs a refresh later on.
      Jim R

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  4. Where I work, they are pretty generous with time off and we have changed time off plans several times in the past 5-10 years. Biggest change 10 years ago was to go from a defined time off to earned time off. Seems that a lot of people would retire the 3rd week of January with 6 weeks of vacation.

    However, now we have to stick around until mid February to get the previous year of 401k match.

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  5. Sounds like a great time . Our reunions went away when the last of the old folks died . Now we are the old folks and the youngins are all scattered to the four winds . We used to keep everyones address and send out cards but so few even live in the ao it became useless . I sure do miss the fellowship . One side of my wifes family still meet but they are all flaming fags and reprobate democrats . That they would welcome us is laughable . Last time I went I spent the time adjusting my temper and not punching anyone to please my wife . It was not enjoyable .

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  6. Good on ya! I hope everyone sticks together through the coming times. I dont know how many times my crowd has left since everyone is scattering for opportunities. Cheers

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