Last week, not my favorite week.

It was just a pain of a week last week. Now truth be told, nothing really awful happened, but it was full of annoyances. It all started with my boss who has been on vacation for what seems like since the turn of the century. I have worked the same 3 days for about a year and a half. I don't want any more than 3 days or else I would have stayed full time and made a lot more money. So when I glanced at the schedule what I saw was the same 3 days that I normally worked and I didn't bother to check the other days. I got up on Saturday and Arlene and I went out for an early breakfast. We had planned to go to the movies in the afternoon and perhaps finish the day on her porch doing in a bottle of wine. It's nice to watch the sun go down even though there's isn't a clean shot to the horizon. This is my favorite sunset shot I have ever taken. It was taken you know where as we walked to the ocean after dinner. Arlene just happened to look to her right and said, "Oh wow! Look at that!"
That's not the ocean but a pond across the street from the ocean.

This is how I envisioned my retirement. Now realistically I'm not going to be able to retire to that little gem of an island but as much as this area is my home I am getting tired of the traffic and the congestion. My part time job is 6 miles from my house and yet it took me an hour and 10 minutes to travel those six miles a few days ago. But I have digressed mightily. When Arlene and I returned from breakfast we both went back to our respective homes. As I walked in at 8:10 in the morning I see there is a message on my home phone. My first thought was, "Who the *!#$!!@!! has called me between 7 and 8 a.m. on a Saturday?"

It could be a family emergency so I listened to the message. It, thankfully wasn't a family emergency but a call from work. I hear this sing-songy voice say, "Hi! This is Stephanie from Star Market! We were wondering if you were going to come in for your 8-4:30 shift today? Please call us back and let us know! Thank you!"

What! I have to work! I was not happy. Since when do I work 4 days a week? Now I admit that I didn't look at the entire schedule but it would have been nice to be asked for the favor. I probably would have done it since they were short of help owing to my bosses prolonged vacation. It has been over 2 weeks at this point. So all of Saturdays plans went out the window. I worked and by the time I got home I was in no mood for porch sitting that evening. I was grumpy all day. I didn't get a chance to eat lunch so all I wanted to do when I got home was eat and pass out. As it has been over most of the U.S. it has been hot. 90 and humid yesterday and  it will be such for the rest of the week. Not my favorite weather. Ok I know it's summer and I suppose it's better than the 9 feet of snow of this passed winter, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. Yeah I know I'm whining. There were other little incidents this passed week that annoyed me. Still apart from all of that I have to admit that I am a lucky guy. I have a wonderful partner in Arlene and I think I have enough saved for a fairly comfortable retirement. I can't wait to fully retire but that won't be for another year plus. At that point I will say goodbye to a job that I had with the same company for 46 years. It used to be a great company to work for, for the first 20 years. They were very innovative in the supermarket business credited with a few first such as wrapping meat on trays with a cellophane wrap, conveyer belts that took your groceries to the parking lot then having someone load them in your car. A 401k retirement plan that I had to be talked into when I was 22 and eligible. Who thought back then that I would be approaching 65 and have some money stashed away for a comfortable retirement.  Thank goodness I listened and joined all those years ago.

Of course things are quite different now in the supermarket business. The original family sold the company to the Chicago based Jewel corporation in 1964. Nothing really changed for us as the company was still growing. We owned the Boston area and started to expand into New Hampshire and down on Cape Cod. Jewel was very impressed with us and left family members to still run the company. Then there was a hostile take over of the Jewel Corporation in 1984. We were bought and sold several more times. The last owner before the present owner started to convert all our stores to another chain they owned who had no presence in the Boston area. Stores were closed and almost all Star Markets were converted to the other name. By 2012 60 stores had dwindled down to a handful of about six. Then guess what? We were sold again to an even bigger corporation. This time the people in charge said that they were going to start converting stores back to the original name because they felt it had some historic value in this area. 2015 is the hundredth year anniversary of it's founding. I hope it's not too late. I say this because there is a sentimental feeling about the name. My parents used to shop there in the 50's and 60's. As a child I was always fascinated by the conveyer belt that took your groceries to the bundle pick up outside the store. Were at 20 stores now but we are part of a 180 store chain all under one management with two different names. It's confusing for everybody.
This is the store. These are not my pictures, they are from the internet.

  

 
This is the bundle pickup which disappeared in 2007 when a kid got his hand stuck in some of the mechanism. He was not badly hurt but that was the end of it after some 47 years or so.

OK I know I have been all over the map with this post, repeating some things that I have written about in the past but as much as I was annoyed about having to work yesterday, I think I'm over it. It's a hot and humid one today and it will remain so for the rest of the week. Most of the U.S. is in the same boat. I look forward to the fall but not to the winter but that's part of the price you pay to live around here and this place ain't cheap. So now it's time to get cleaned up, put some pants on and get on with the day.

I'm outta here.