Dearest Rachel –
There are moments when, while I can’t thank you enough for allowing me to check out of the work farce (and I’ll never forget how you put it at the moment; “you’ve supported me for the last twenty-plus years, now it’s my turn to support you.” Not every one, even as a spouse, would be willing to make such an offer), I wonder if I haven’t gotten a little too used to the life of retirement. For all that I’ve tried to keep ‘working’ – at least to a certain extent, as much to stay in practice as the fact that the church needs the work done – when I take a little extra time off, it’s hard to get back into the routine again.
It’s not as if I meant to take what amounted to a four-day weekend or anything. It just sort of… happened; not that I’d complain about it. Well, except for how it started; Friday morning saw me peering at yet another puddle in the utility room, and wondering (since the water extended underneath both units) whether the situation had to do with the air conditioner or the hot water heater – both of which, by the way, are less than a year old. Sure, this means they’re both still under warranty, like with the whole situation with the freezer (which hasn’t been completely resolved yet, either, as that replacement part hasn’t arrived, to my knowledge), but the very fact that something’s wrong this early in their life cycle isn’t a good thing, no matter how you slice it.
Even more problematic is the fact that, once I got home in the early afternoon to let the repairman in (after putting in maybe an hour – at most – of ‘work’ at the ‘office,’ and a similar amount of time socializing with Lars, who had come over to check up on the folks), he spent at least an hour or so of tinkering around in the utility room before deciding that everything was running the way it was supposed to be. Even the possibility of condensation (he’d concluded that the problem was with the air conditioner as opposed to the hot water heater, which made some sense, as sometimes the A/C can run too well and generate ice on its condenser, which melts onto the floor) didn’t seem to be causing the problem; at least, not at that moment. All he could suggest was that we keep an eye on it, and let him and his company know if things devolve from here. Ironically, it hasn’t occurred to me to check since then – although I did go downstairs yesterday to use the washroom, but I didn’t notice anything untoward in the utility room. So maybe the situation has resolved itself after all.
Although, while he was doing all that tinkering, Daniel and I were hanging out together for the earlier part of that mid-afternoon – which is ironic, considering that Logan puts in the long hours he does in order to essentially have his Fridays free (which the boys then spend hanging out together, while the money he earns goes to Pokémon cards – he insists it’s an investment – figurines, Doordash orders and, when I pester him about it, rent. Nothing in terms of going out with a girl or anything. Then again, I’m not his dad, nor do I wish to be; he can make his own decisions regarding his own money and time). Eventually, however, he did come downstairs, we went out to dinner together – we’re still trying to burn through all those gift cards, y’know – and the rest of the evening was passed uneventfully and quietly on my own. I’d have texted Brenda, if I knew her number.
At least with the main portion of the weekend proper, I’d been able to keep myself busy in what amounted to the usual means (which is to say, working in the booth). I barely managed to squeeze in a fast of twenty-four hours at one point, which was quickly offset by a sumptuous meal with Daniel and Kerstin, as we discussed the particulars regarding getting her over with the group headed to Israel later this year. She’s still in the process of getting a new passport from the German consulate, but I’ve been informed that for the moment, we can fill in her registration with the word “Pending” where her passport number would go until such time as she gets it, so that might be sorted out soon.
Speaking of sorting things out, I’ve also gotten my visa squared away with the U.K. for the end of this month. We don’t have a lot of plans for the day in which we have at liberty in London (and based on my newsfeed, those two ‘L’-words don’t go together anywhere as much as they used to, although if we’re doing the usual touristy things, that should be something of a non-issue for us to deal with), but at least I’ll be good to go – and it barely took an hour or so to fill out, send and get approved. Now, of course, I’ll have to get on Daniel’s case and make sure he takes care of his own registration before too long.
Really, that’s all the ‘work’ I took care of throughout yesterday, as I stayed home to make sure that Kris got paid immediately for her work about the house. We also took her out to lunch, although we decided not to do the usual Asian places that her family eschews for once (we went to a new place that opened up a month or so near the house that specializes in wings, although she and I went with the Caesar salad instead; go figure). She’s mentioned a place that’s opened up in her neighborhood that apparently serves sashimi in a burrito; we’ll check that out next time around, I dare say.
But all that leisure time leaves one less than motivated to show up at the ‘office’ and actually do ‘work,’ even if it is orders of magnitude less of a struggle than back in the old work farce days. I may have deferred the sensation of going to work of a Monday until today, but it still feels like Monday nevertheless. Still, there’s stuff that needs to be done, and I’m the only one who can do it, so let’s get on with it all.
With that having been said, honey, I hope you could keep an eye on me for the day and week, and wish me luck – and maybe motivation, as well. I expect I’ll need plenty of both.
Letters to Rachel 