I had lunch with Bergie today and we talked about how much we shared with each other all those years ago. I was such a better teacher for working with him. I somewhat consider him my older “brother” although at school they called us the twinsies for how closely our classes tracked each other! His life was been busy lately so he hasn’t been able to come to the retirees lunches and will miss next month to do something with Tony A. So, we decided to have lunch together today. The life of being retired – if I don’t get to it today, I will get to it tomorrow! Or the next day….
Yesterday I had my semi “weekly” breakfast with Rita. It is almost a once a week activity, generally punctuated by my not being available (say like going to Nashville!). And yesterday we were talking about having time and how that is so precious. When you are working, especially as crazy as teaching has been these last few years, you know you want more time but you fail to understand what it is truly like to have that time. Rita and I have sort of turned breakfast into a half day adventure as we go and shop and explore. Yesterday we found Falling Prices but that place is NUTS! It is the Amazon returns “store” and each day the price goes down on the stuff left behind. Generally they go down a dollar a day – yesterday was $4 day. Almost everything is $4. Some of it worth it, and some is not. There were quite a few bathing suits but not my size. And lots of kids jackets and sweaters. And there was a fridge that was $104 – and it was not a small dorm style fridge! But the items are placed into giant bins and you just paw through everything. Funny the two of us should find this place – both of us really don’t care for shopping in general. Lots of great things for a classroom there though! After our morning adventure, we go play with the dogs – Emerson needs a bit of retraining so we will start walking them again and work on that. Oliver is just a big goofy lab and so very sweet! That will be fun.
I’ve also seen Laurie H a bit for lunch in Davis, and Laura R for lunch at least once a month. It seems my travels are based on food! Laura and Trevor were supposed to come up for dinner earlier this month but had some suspicious symptoms so canceled. Smart since they are both in health care, but it wasn’t COVID – just allergies and pressure changes causing stuffiness and runny noses. Add in my trip to Nashville with Kris And Des, and I have had some good socialization time this month. Cherie flies in for Thanksgiving tomorrow night, Matt, Jenny and Max come Saturday morning and Eric E flies in Monday night. Then the rest of the Engel family joins us on Wednesday. Good times coming up too!
I am so very grateful for the time I have now and I wish everyone could experience this freeing feeling of having time.