Rant #1,913: Hot Fun in the Springtime

Well, not really, because the weather in my neck of the woods wasn't very good during this Memorial Day weekend, but we made the best of it.

The Memorial Day weekend is traditionally the beginning of summer for many people, even though the calendar says that we are still a few weeks away from the actual first day of summer.

But the holiday symbolizes the fact that yes, warmer weather is coming our way, and even though Memorial Day 2017 wasn't ideal weather-wise, at least for me, it symbolized a period to step back and take things easy for a few days.

This holiday period did not begin well for me. Without going into details, although we got out of work early on Friday, I spent pretty much the rest of the afternoon trying to make right my finances related to my former 401K and profit sharing plans.

It took hours, but as of now, everything is squared away.

However, I will never forget that the problems all began with my work, how they handled these monies and the horror I went through to make things right.

I am not a vindictive person, but no one should have had to go through what I went through these past six-plus months, culminating with the horror I went through on Friday.

Thank goodness that horror appears to be over.

The perfect antidote for this horrid Friday afternoon that I experienced was to relax on Saturday, but since it was the only day that we, as a family, could celebrate the holiday, we decided to take a big drive out east on Long Island, and we went to a town called Greenport to spend the bulk of our day.

It was the nicest day, weather-wise, of the entire weekend, so although it was kind of cool, it was the perfect day to venture out there.

Long Island is called Long Island for a reason, and yes, the Island is long, whether you go to the South Fork or the North Fork. Greenport is one of its longest points, a town that is so different from the rest of Long Island that, as my son said, it feels like we were somewhere else, maybe even in another state, while we were there.

Rather than Long Island, or even New York, Greenport resembles New England in a funny way. It is a small town, with one school for all the grades, and it has rows and rows of shops and restaurants to interest anyone who goes there.

So there we were, 80 some odd miles away from where we live, and we did what good tourists do, which is frequent the shops and eat lunch there.

We ate in a very nice, pricey restaurant, pretty much the only restaurant we could get into during a very busy lunchtime, but even though it was pricey, the food was good and it was worth it.

It was nice to eat "good" for a change, so yes, we spent a lot of money, but again, it was a holiday, so one time wasn't going to hurt us that bad.

We walked around a bit, went to the water, took some pictures, went into several shops to browse, and then, that was it. Eighty-plus miles there, 80-plus miles home.

It was a nice day, something different that we don't usually do, and it calmed whatever fire was in me from the day before.

We arrived at home, I went out to get our usual weekend fast food for dinner, and we settled into the normalcy of the rest of the weekend.

Our son worked the past two days, so we really couldn't do too much, and we didn't.

I did get to see my daughter yesterday, which was nice ... but back to reality today.

Not only does our son continue to work, but so do I, but at least my wife is off, as she is on a few days of vacation.

Memorial Day, where we honor our war dead, was a nice respite from the pressure that I am feeling from all sides at my work, a place which is a cancer to me in so many ways.

Thank goodness this break came when it did, but now, it is back to the grind.

To some, Memorial Day signifies the beginning of summer; to me, at least at this juncture, it represented a break, a time to reflect on what I am going through and to look ahead to something better.

I haven't lost the faith, but sometimes, let's just say that that flame needs some added firewood.

And Memorial Day provided that to me, as I take on the next day of my "career."

Yes, keeping positive is a difficult thing to do.