I'M DYING HERE------

 

I’M DYING HERE------

I’m living in the middle of a hay field and why am I surprised to have hay fever? In Houston, I had ragweed…in Austin, it was cedar. It seems as if the entire globe has some thing or another that sets me off. If I was living in the Sahara Desert, I imagine I would sneeze, snort, cough every ten minutes due to the abundance of sand.

Last Sunday we went to a doc-in-the-box and got three shots of something or another. I’m pretty sure I would be disqualified for any Olympics games at this point, but I do feel better. The positive thing that has happened during all of this is that I have started on our Christmas decorations. The new tissue boxes are all done up in festive colors.

Retiring is a mindset that you have to get adjusted with. I know lots of people who have told me, ‘when I retire, I’m playing golf and fishing every day’. I don’t know of anyone who ever lived up to that statement. Perhaps they are out there, but I’ve never seen or heard of them. Even now, I like to stay busy, and I enjoy myself without having goals or deadlines to meet. It’s great to work at your own pace and actually have less stress than the workplace. Try it for yourself.

I started working at fourteen, my first job was cutting up melons at a watermelon stand. I got fired after the first week since I was cutting the slices too large to suit the manager. My second job was a caddy at a country club in Baytown, Texas. I think this had a lot to do with my attitude towards golf for the rest of my life.

I hated it.

Number one, I never saw a happy golfer. They always seemed mad about something or another. Secondly, I knew nothing about the game and here is some adult asking me what club to use for this shot as if I knew. Then yell at me for picking the wrong iron or wood. How was I supposed to know you shouldn’t use a driver to putt?

I don’t have time to describe all of the various business opportunities I was involved in after I got out of the army and the police department. I’ll get around to those at some later date. The rest of my pre-adult jobs were mostly paper routes, grocery stores and service stations. Paper routes were ok, but when it came time to collect each month, you came to dislike those who avoided you for payment. When you rang the doorbell and the curtains moved, you knew they weren’t going to fork over that $3.50 again that month. Bagging groceries in paper sacks was not bad. Most of the customers were nice and tipped well. It was only those who wanted to stand over you and berate you on their method of double bagging and how canned goods were always placed and the bottom and the bread on top. As if I didn’t know that already.

All of these jobs gave me lots of positive experiences in learning how to deal with people and handle their individual characteristics. It helped me when I became an adult.

Do kids today even have after school jobs and if they do, do they learn anything from them?  

I wonder….will have to check into this. Keep reading.

See you next week----Peary Perry