How about a Doors title, Summer's almost gone, Summer's almost gone...*

I’ve been busy these last few months, or at least it seems so. I haven’t had the time to really write in the blog. I used to take some time during the first few hours of my work day and write. Lately I’ve been busier and it also seems like I’m taking greater advantage of my boss, so I don’t anymore. The company has started a new product line and I get to sell forklifts to people who then retail them to businesses. It can be fun. I’ve talked to people who have retired over the last few months asking them what they do to keep busy. I’ve watched my mom closer now than before and notice she does less, but she still does. She’s 90, so I guess whatever she’s doing I should copy. Most other people I talk to say things like everyday is Friday or if you want Saturday. They don’t have to even keep track of the days. Some people mentor younger people. I get all icky feeling when I say younger people. I don’t feel that old. I feel like a tired fifteen year old. I know I’ll probably retire, maybe sooner than I think, I just don’t know what I’ll do with all of that time.

Nastia is a girl who is acting like she is a girl with very little time left or someone who wants to experience it all as soon as possible. She’s kept her and her boyfriend Sean busy this summer. They were to the shore several times, she got hurt by a wave at Robert Moses State park on Long Island on the exact same day as she did last year. It’s becoming a tradition with her. She went to Maine with Sean to visit his friend. They’ve got to see every movie they could possibly see this summer and have eaten out at least once every week, most of the time twice. Now they are camping up just a little east of Roscoe New York at a campground just off of Route 17. They were very unprepared and Sean thought they might not go. He hadn’t checked his tent out and it was supposed to rain, so Nastia pushed through and he bought a new tent. They borrowed a battery operated lamp from Teri and I that has been dying to be used for over four years now. So off they went Friday night up the thruway into Friday evening traffic in September with all the other who are trying to get one last weekend in upstate before the weather changes and it becomes too cold to do it. THey set up camp, I’m assuming in the dark, but they had that battery operated lamp we lent them and one they or Sean purchased and oh, yes to get a little dig in, yes they are still saving to move out one day. I’ll have to change the lock the day before they do and put all their stuff on the front lawn before they do that. Well at least they are cooking for themselves, well or at least finding places to eat. They possibly have the privacy that Sean say they don’t get in our big old house with its thick old walls that an atomic blast in the next room wouldn’t be heard. I’m really not implying anything really I’m not. Wait, I can’t type while I snicker and laugh at the same time. We do really leave them alone. And yes every night they are tired and go to bed just after dinner. Those tired, tired children. They’ll be home tomorrow Sunday some time. While they are away I am replacing, hopefully finishing replacing the light/fan switch in their room. It was running slowly. Hopefully it is the switch, not the fan. Now Elena is still single. She still works part time at Caliper Tire and according to her mother still needs benefits. At the age of twenty-four who thinks about having benefits. She works Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, mostly. On her off days she sleeps in until her mother thinks it’s time for her to get up. Her and I are still working on the 1986 Corvette and yes I’ll admit it we are in over our heads. I didn’t think a 1986 car would be so complex. A list of the problems on this car would make a grown man cry as he parted out the car on Ebay. I could most likely make a profit on it if I did, but it’s a convertible. The first year a Corvette convertible had been made in years and there were only a little over 7,000 made and the way people drive and are parting out cars there can’t be too many left. We’ll both keep at it until, who knows when. I hope one day one of the hints I’ve dropped to people will take root and they will come over and solve one, just one problem to set Elena and I on the right track. Teri over the last year and change became one of the growing group of people forced into retirement. I’ve talked about how she’d get interviews over the phone or by Zoom and never that final would you like to come work for us phone call. She went as far north as Poughkeepsie to interview in person. She went to Long Island. Finally after a year she gave up. During the Summer, she finally decided to retire. We’d figured out how to live without her salary and her retirement money would now be just a bonus. A funny thing happened on her way to a nice relaxing retirement, she broke out in a rash. I don’t remember where it started but it would be on her hands, and feet, her back. She got a steroid shot and it mostly went away until it didn’t all the way go away. Now coming up on October it is mostly gone away. She still itches, it comes and goes and she’s been to it can come back. We are hoping the severity of it was only because of the emotional issues she faced this Spring with coming to the realization no one wants to hire a 60 year old. Even one that would make your company hum. I feel lucky when I think about what she’s gone through. I’m at a job making what I made twenty years ago, ooops, twenty-four years ago and I feel it could be worse. *I know, I've used it at least three times. Summer’s Almost Gone Song by The Doors Summer's almost gone Summer's almost gone Almost gone Yeah, it's almost gone Where will we be When the summer's gone? Morning found us calmly unaware Noon burn gold into our hair At night, we swim the laughin' sea When summer's gone Where will we be? Where will we be? Where will we be? Morning found us calmly unaware Noon burn gold into our hair At night, we swim the laughin' sea When summer's gone Where will we be? Summer's almost gone Summer's almost gone We had some good times But they're gone The winter's comin' on Summer's almost gone