Retirement Fun

My bride and I went to the Claim Jumper last night to celebrate Mary Hale's 50th birthday...Mary didn't know about the surprise party and she thought no one remembered her birthday so she invited some of the staff to her house for drinks after work just to celebrate...She didn't know that the staff had been planning this get together for a few weeks...(time to go to plan B). The staff had to think fast so everyone except two or three of them said they had something else to do and would come if they could...The ones who went to her house said they would wait around for a little while and then when no one else was showing they would say to her "hey, lets not wait for anyone else...Why don't we go to the Claim Jumper for dinner?"...Of course Mary readily agreed.

We showed up about 5:15 and got a parking space right in front of the restaurant in full view of everyone entering the place...I didn't think about my ridiculous looking car and everyone who came in after we did said "we knew you were here". By then it was too late to park somewhere else.

As luck would have it Mary didn't even see the car but as soon as she came into the dining area she spotted me and thought "what's Elmer doing here?". By then everyone yelled "Happy Birthday" and the party was on.

The company was excellent, everyone was cordial and the Tri-tip steak was disappointing (the wine helped assuage the disappointment). After dinner my bride went to another table to talk with her former principal and Georgeann ( one of the teachers ) asked me about my retirement plans and what I planned to do this summer when Marlen was retired...Was I planning to spend any time with her? "Of course", I replied, " I hope to spend a lot of time with her... I'm going to be chasing her around the house every morning and hopefully I'll be fast enough to catch her so that the next time you see her she'll be a shadow of her former self". The look on her face was priceless.

Tonight we were in the kitchen making dinner together and I said to Marlen "so, how was your day"? She replied, "Well, it was OK except that I had to spend my lunch hour listening to everyone tell me how you were going to chase me around until I became a shadow of my former self"....OOPS!!!

I hope to do better tomorrow.

They'll never learn

I don't know what's happening to me recently but I try to look to the fun stuff that's happening and look to being lighthearted with my blogs...yesterday and today didn't make this easy.

I had to deliver a proposal to the Southwest Community Church in Palm Desert yesterday. After meeting with the chief engineer I went out to my van and parked next to me was a light green Camaro convertible with the windows rolled up, doors locked and an adorable pre-schooler sitting inside. I tried to open the door and then went to the day care center and asked them if they knew who owned that car, explained that there was a little girl sitting inside with the windows rolled up, that it was awfully hot outside and if she had been in there for any length of time that it must be very uncomfortable for her....I couldn't believe the reaction. The two women in the day care center said that they knew who the mother was and that they didn't know there was a child in the car...I had to say "well then get her and get that kid out of there". They slowly went into the office while I went to the car to make sure the baby was OK. Several minutes later a slim Latino woman came wandering out of the building saying to me "mind your own business...mind your own business"...and kept repeating that as I told her that "lady, you must be some screaming idiot leaving that baby in that hot car...how would you like to be left there?"..."mind your own business, mind your own business"...and I said to her "this is my own business and if I ever see you do this again I'll call the cops before I try to locate you"..."mind your own business, mind your own business"....she got in the car and peeled out of the parking area. What in all hell is wrong with some people?

I'll try to find something lighthearted to talk about tomorrow.

Back again

Much has happened since my last posting...many things to tell, but not tonight.

Younger brother, John, is no longer with us...he was much too young to go but his courage, tenacity, love of music and his gifts of knowledge and enthusiasm for music to his students will long be remembered...we'll miss him greatly.