So let's see...

...where was I? Oh yeah. After months of torture from the bank, the seller and the state my sister finally ended up getting her house. She finally moved in on Tuesday the 8th of January. It turns out she's less than a mile from me. Not that she was all that far away from me in the first place, 3 miles. This time she is on the same side of the city as I am. It's all a residential area. A right at the end of my street,a left at the park, 2nd right 4 houses in. Maybe a 10 minute walk.

I am begining to write this on Saturday night. I had a late shift today and arrived home at about 9:20. I am writing this now instead of tomorrow morning (when this will more than likely be published) because a few thoughts on what to write are still floating around in my head. My company was just sold, again. We were owned by SuperValu. They were neither super nor a value. We have been part of that corporation since 2006. The five companies that SuperValu sold were, Albertsons, Acme, Jewel-Osco (who used to own us back in the 70's until that corporation got swallowed up by a larger one) Shaws and Star Market. The last two are really one company. The last one, Star, is my original company. Boy do I miss it. We really haven't been Star Market since 1999. Anyway so all is in limbo for now. We just had 700 people laid off two months ago. This is making me think quite seriously about retiring next year when I hit 62. Besides I don't know if, at this point, I have another 5 years in me to hit 66. I've already been doing this job for 41 years, 42 on April 1. Still I am grateful to have been steadily employed and paid nicely for what I do.

Sometimes the customers can annoy and sometimes they can be quite amusing especially when they mangle the pronunciation of something. I may have mentioned this before but we do not sell all beef balonga. Nor do we sell mosquito turkey breast or the Italian delicacy, pasquito. In english that would be balogna, mesquite and proscuitto. I will also admit that at times we make fun of people. I mean, if I have to work the counter for any length of time, say 4 hours or so it can get boring, repitious and annoying so you can't help and make some kind of comment to a coworker when  someone walks up with a face like a catchers mitt. You  need a release somtimes.

There are strange people walking around outside. I was sitting in my car waiting for my shift to begin when I hear someone saying,
"Hello.....hello....."
I looked at my rearview mirror and there was this guy walking slowly by my car waving and saying hello to nobody in particular. This went on across the parking lot right up and to the store.

The flu has hit this area pretty hard. Boston alone had 700 confirmed cases and there have been 18 deaths across the state. I have not had a flu shot. The one time I did get one I got the flu. That was about 30 years ago. Maybe I'm gambling here but I have been blessed with a good imune system. I have not been sick in about 30 years.

It is now Sunday morning. I have a bit of housekeeping to do as I have a few friends coming over to watch the Patriots game at 4:30. It's been pretty exciting around here when it comes to the Patriots and I'm sure things will change once Tom Brady retires. It's hard to believe he's been here for 13 years. What a pleasure it's been to watch this team. Then there's the Red Sox. They will be a roll of the dice this year. Enough about sports.

Well this has been a rambling excerise and in the light of a new day I realize that I have repeated myself from the past couple of entries but when I started this last night I was a bit fuzzy from a 9 hour day. I do think of things to write about during the course of the day but I don't make a note of it to remind myself later on. When I finally sit in front of the keyboard I end up thinking,
"What was I going to write about?" I draw a big blank. So I think I'll end this "rambling excercise" I've got things to do before 4:30, laundry, vacuming, a bit of house keeping and cleaning the interior of my car, not to mention the exterior.

GO PATRIOTS!

I'm outta here.