Monthly Archives: June 2014

Longtime Friendship

I revel in the knowledge of knowing that this retirement is great and, so far I have led a wonderful and full life.  There is nothing to be ashamed of or, to put it another way, hang my head in shame and ask for forgiveness.  All of this was bought into the forefront when a person I have not seen nor heard from in the past thirty five years contacted me and we met Saturday.

We renewed our friendship and I met his wife.  Ricky worked for me in the Air Force, both in Germany and in North Dakota, and although I outranked him and he worked for me, we partied hard together.  I was surprised to learn he was a pastor now and is walking the straight and narrow but stranger things have happened.  Just to think I don’t drink anywhere close to what I used to drink, or cuss as much (it is almost non-existent now), or even go out like I used to.  Chalk it up to growing softly older or maturing enough to finally know that that was not the way to go or somehow live to a sweet old age.

I looked at Ricky and remembered the many good times we had together and, like I told his wife, I was the First Sergeant while in North Dakota and he spent more time at my house than I did (I was joking, of course, but he did spend a lot of time at my house).  Ricky was crazy enough to have been part of my K-9 outfit in Germany but he was security.  I was sent from K-9 to take over a portion of the security force and that is how we met and started partying together (in fact, I partied with most of my men).  The rest is HISTORY, a little alcohol clouded but a blast anyway.

We sat and talked, ate supper and talked, sat and talked again.  We reminisced a lot and still did not hit but the tip of the iceberg.  I will go to Charlottesville and have lunch with him very soon (just a short drive).  This just goes to show us that true friendship last forever.  Ricky Clatterbuck and I have proven that point.

Take care and, with school being out soon, be very, very careful.  FISHING this week (rain, rain go away) and I will write about it.

Hear Ye – Hear Ye!!

This weather is beautiful and is just right for any outside activity.  Sure, there is occasional rain, here and there, and it is mostly at night when everyone should be sleeping or at least inside, out of the weather.  Don’t let the threat of rain or an occasional sprinkle bother you.  Like the shoe ad say….”just do it”.  Imperial Plaza had a cookout and the weather was perfect for that as well as for all other things going on at that time.

My wife talked me into playing BINGO and, lucky her, she won one and was really close on a couple.  I, on the other hand, wasn’t even close so you know what that mean.  Yep…..no more BINGO because I can think of other things to do with the time I spend at BINGO.  She still runs the twice weekly WII BOWLING and she is trying to get me into that also.  I show up, every now and then, and watch while having a beer or two.

There are a few things that have changed at Imperial Plaza and they are to talk about it at the next “Men’s Conversational” which will be with Cindy as the guest speaker.  Since she is from Corporate, she should have all the answers we want and then some.  The one thing I heard is that the name (Imperial Plaza) is changing to Brookside, the company that bought facilities across the nation.  This should be interesting because after calling a place by one name, it’s hard to call it something else.  I still say Mosque instead of Altria (those around Richmond know what I am talking about.  All others can contact me directly and I will explain).

Virginia is a place to behold.  They are so against gambling (years ago it was very hard to get lotto) that they not only repeatedly turned down casinos (the Indians wanted it like in other states) but now the only horse racing arena is going around and around with the state over some sort of regulations, etc. that there is no time for racing this year.  This state tries to be too puritanical and we all (the residents of the state) suffer for it.  This is not the 1600 or 1700 but we are into the 2000’s and things have changed.  Morality has changed all over the world yet Virginia refuse to change.

SEE YA LATER!!!!!!!!