Pretty Perfect Saturday

Realized there was a new Sia album (how did I miss the release day??!!) so am happily downloaded and listening while also watching Apollo 13 - one of life's best 'feel good' movies ever!  Confirmed our monthly deposits happened on schedule and am merrily working away at the monthly list of things that happen when I/we get paid.  :-)  Getting paid is good.

The week flew by - so busy, I can barely think.  I didn't look at my calendar at all yesterday.  We had a nice retirement lunch for the two retirees at the district office - it was fun and was a nice mid-day break.  I could barely look at the Payroll person who left with basically no notice - and no cross training or even documentation of the myriad of things that she's done all by herself for decades. I don't begrudge her retiring but I do think she handled her departure very badly and basically lied to me about it for the months it was coming.  That being said, I wished her well (sincerely) and we are firmly moving on.

Losing my best friend G. (now former by one day assistant to the Superintendent) was much harder and for her, I sincerely shared sentiments with her about the 9+ years she's been my rock.  Our former sup gave her a Snuggie complete with our district logo embroidered on it - it was a running joke with them 'cuz she was always cold and he was always hot - and she bequeathed the Snuggie to me!  It's safely hanging on the coat hook behind my office door and I will appreciate it on days when I can't get warm.

I will miss her but am grateful to have been blessed with a life long friend that I will see on a regular basis -

At the retirement lunch, G. mentioned that our boss was being honored by our city's Chamber of Commerce and it was then and only then that I realized "CRAP!  I am going to that dinner tonight". From the moment I woke up yesterday, I kept saying 'just get to 4PM...just get to 4PM'...so realizing that I had a night obligation too - ugh!  I headed home at 4 and had a couple of hours to decompress and in the end, the dinner was a nice evening with fun people.  Most of our table were work friends and there was a really nice couple - they've lived in Tracy all their lives and the husband was a conductor for the railroad for 45 years - so lots of fascinating stories.  Tracy started as a 'hub' for the railways - lots of history there.  Sweetest couple ever - in their 80's and still having fun.

J. is working on updating my navigation maps in my car and from the looks of the instructions, I think he will be awhile.  H. is heading to the bookstore to get his text books for this semester.

B. has phoned ME a couple times this week to check in on my eye situation - so sweet that he's been worried.  The maneuvers in Louisiana are almost complete and they should be heading home to Fort Bliss soon.  B. says 'I can't wait to get back to El Paso' and I said 'bet you never thought you'd hear yourself say that, right'?  You miss your own bed no matter where it is.  Sleeping night after night in a Humvee loses it's charm around night 3, I think.  It's also been fun that a newspaper in El Paso is doing a series of articles on the maneuvers so at least we can read about them and see the pictures posted - no pics of B. yet but it's great to just see what they've been doing.  LOTS of big equipment and even helicopters, etc. - it's a really big deal, this training - and it's neat to know B. and his unit are a part of it.

I purposefully brought down clothes to dress into 'cuz if I don't, I will likely stay in PJ's all day - and we should be making a grocery run and a Target run at this point in our errand cycle.  So I'll force myself to get wet (I dread showering on cold days...) so I can go outside and do some stuff.  It's a rare sunny day and there's lots of outdoor stuff to take care of as well as inside stuff to catch up on.