Rant #2,838: Time For Livin'

How was your Presidents’ Day holiday?
 
I celebrated the holiday—which falls in February for George Washington and Abraham Lincoln’s birthdates but now is a day that honors all of our presidents—by doing next to nothing.
 
There was no work for me, because those in the various military services that I deal with had the day off, so there was nothing for me to write or edit.
 
My son wasn’t working on Monday, so I did not have to take him back and forth to work.
 
So it was a day where I could just do not much of anything, so that is what I did.
 
I digitized a whole selection of my records—I am getting into one of my favorite acts of yore, The Association of “Windy” and “Along Comes Mary” fame again—and I also watched an absolutely horrible movie that doesn’t even bear worth mentioning much about here.
 
I guess if was a day to recharge my batteries, and it worked.
 
I feel ready to go today, and I hope that you do too!
 
I am sure that today I will get some work to do, so that will keep me occupied for a spell.
 
And my son works today, and for the rest of the weekday workweek, so I have to drive him back and forth to his job, which I really don’t mind doing at all.
 
One day, I am confident that he will learn to drive, but right now, I don’t mind being his chauffeur.
 
And today after work, we will both go and get a haircut.
 
Even bald people like me need to get their hair cut, and yes, the word "hair” is in the singular because quite frankly, that describes my situation best.
 
And I will do the usual things that I like to do, such as watch some TV, read the newspaper, and of course, dine on scrumptious fare for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
 
And tonight, I will watch professional wrestling with my son, and consequently fall asleep right in the middle of it, like I always do.
 
 Such is the exciting life of a (semi-) retired person.
 
I had an interesting conversation with my eye doctor over the weekend.
 
My son had an appointment, so my wife and I went with him, and as he was going to get the exam, my doctor asked what I was doing with myself, and I brought up that I was recently in the local newspaper in a story about retirement.
 
He asked me what was the theme of the story, and I told him that at least on my end, it was that I was forced into retirement and Social Security against my will because I could not get a job for a variety of reasons, including my age and the existence of the pandemic.
 
He said this to me in response:
 
“I would think it would have been easier for you to get a job during the height of the pandemic, simply because everyone was working from home.”
 
And then he went to take care of my son.
 
This is what I have come across, not just from him, but from others, in relation to my situation, and it proves once again that you cannot possibly understand the situation I was in unless you have walked a mile in my shoes.
 
The doctor was being nice about it, but he has no understanding of this situation.
 
He will never be out of a job, he will never be told, or have it insinuated, that he is too old for the job at hand, he will never have to search around and scrimp for work like I did.
 
So although I don’t want to paint this as a “woe is me” episode, I guess the fact of the matter is that if you haven’t ever been in this situation,, you can’t possibly have any true understanding of it, so these are your thoughts, as misguided as they are.
 
And that leads me to the head of the misguided group the baseball players, the owners and the executives of Major League Baseball, a group I spoke about yesterday.
 
They actually had a meeting of several hours yesterday, so they must have read yesterday’s Rant about how the fans are the ones getting the biggest kick in the butt from their inaction.
 
And they plan on meeting again today, so maybe there is some movement to resolve this impasse.
 
Again, their stupidity demonstrates that even people with lots of money, more money than they can possibly know what to do with, can be stupid ignoramuses about it, and these people are certainly not the sharpest bats in the locker, because they have no idea how badly they are all shooting themselves in the foot as the impasse goes on.
 
Even I—an old, (semi-) retired, washed up guy without much money—can see that.
 
So maybe if these rich people opened up their eyes a little bit, they could see that too.
 
But I guess it is all in a day’s work for a (semi-) retired person like myself, who might have little to do during the day but keeps the wheels turning in his head pretty well.
 
Better than rich people half his age, that’s for sure.