Jimscomments3_12

It's starting to sink in. I've been getting little hints from time to time, not a constant, always there thing, but every now and then, just a little reminder. Like when I think about how fast time goes by these days. A day at work used to seem like forever. And I really don't ENJOY my JOB any more than I used to. It's just that the days go by quicker.
   It was only yesterday, it seems, (or maybe last year), that my children were waiting for the bus for school for the first time after we moved out here to the sticks. Josh and Jennie were starting fourth and second grades, respectively, and were more than just a little apprehensive about the new school (and the bus ride).
   I used to work the night shift. Thirteen years of working 7:00PM till 3:30AM. I would get home at either 4:30AM, or 6:30 (depending on whether or not I had overtime that night), sleep for three or four hours, and be up and at it for the coming day/night. And still be functioning well, or at least as well as I functioned, at the end of the week. I would revert back to a "normal" existance on my weekends, meaning that I would sleep nights and be up during the daylight hours. Which means that on Friday (my first day off), I would stay up when I got home from work in the morning, and not go to bed until Friday night, like a "normal" human!!! On Sunday, when I returned to work in the evening, I would get up around 8:00 or so (AM), and not get to bed again until I got home from work Monday morning, again at either 4:30 or 6:30. And I not only did it, I actually ENJOYED it!
   A little over four years ago, I must have been getting some of those little "hints" more frequently. I started working days, sleeping nights, EVERY DAY. I could have made the move years earlier, but several factors, such as the extra money I made working nights, the better days off I had working nights (I've got the same days off now, but not when I first went to days), and the fear of change kept me on nights. I also LIKED the routine, the THRILL, of pushing myself to the limits on very little rest.
   It's been almost eleven years since Josh and Jennie took that first bus ride to their new school. It's been seventeen years since I took the postal job. Josh graduated high school almost two years ago, and Jennie graduates May 20. Jennie, her mother, and I need to get busy planning her reception, designing her announcements, and so on. I'll say it again, it seems like yesterday the kids were so young.
   I talked to my friend Mark the other night. Mark and I were buddies in high school, worked together bussing tables at Bishop's Buffet, and working Saturday nights in the mail room at the Register. We worked on our old Fords together. We even WRECKED them at the same time (well, almost, he wrecked his one evening, I piled mine up the next day.) We were talking about how things USED to be...."burning the candle at both ends" so to speak, doing the three or four hour sleep thing like we would never get old.
   After I'd hung up the phone, those "hints" started haunting me again. It's been almost thirty years since we graduated high school in 1971. Since that time, we've seen our children grow up, and ourselves, ever so gradually, approach middle age. We've been through marriage (and in my case, divorce), job changes, moving several times, in short, life itself. We are both almost 48 years OLD!!! WOW, when I turned 25 my dad was 48 (but he looked much younger!) So NOW I know how HE felt!
   I guess what I really need to say is that, at this point in my life, I can look back and be thankful for the life I've had, and for the life yet in front of me. My youthfulness is tested daily these days, with the assistance of three wonderful young ones named Jered, Jessica, and Jeanna. I am thankful for the inspiration that I get from the mother of the previously mentioned young ones, that would be Joanie. Josh and Jennie are always there, reminding me that age is more than chronological, it's a frame of mind.
   So, that rocking chair will just have to wait (but please, God, show me the way to retire early!)

             'til next time............Jim                     12 March 2001