THIRTY-SIX YEARS AS BUT A DAY (published 5-16-2022; article #326)

Introduction

Writing directly to my wife, I say, “Howdy, dear. You will be home soon, Lord willing, as I begin to write.”

Writing to everyone, I say, “This is not a made-in-China anniversary card for Mrs. Appalachian Irishman. It is an online anniversary card. I hope that she likes it.”

HAPPY 36th ANNIVERSARY, DEAR!

5/16/1986

Well, the courting started, during the Saturday visitation for Mrs. Appalachian Irishman's paternal grandfather, who had passed. I remember the details. I had decided to attend the funeral visitation, instead of having some Saturday evening fun with my friends. That summer, I was the fill-in preacher for the Rogersville Church of Christ.

The pleasant courtship culminated when Mrs. Appalachian Irishman and I became husband and wife, on 5/16/1986. The Friday evening wedding ceremony was in Etowah, Tennessee. The weather was sunny, cool, and crisp. A high-pressure system was dominate. I remember.

Today, I scanned the above photograph, to include it in this article. It's one of the wedding photographs that have been hanging on a wall in the master's bedroom, where Mrs. Appalachian Irishman also sleeps. My wife looks the same. I've grown a beard (which started on 10/1/1994). My hair has turned mostly gray. I don't know why I have aged gracefully, but my wife has not aged at all. It's a mystery.

5/16/2022

Last year, on a Sunday, I wrote, “5/16/2021: Thirty-Five Years as But a Day.” I would not change a word. I'm glad that my wife finally got around to making a comment on that article. Will she comment on this article? We will see.

Yesterday, I wrote, “I Retired: My Future, Undiscovered Country Awaits! (published 5-15-2022; article #325).” Today, our 36th wedding anniversary, I commented on that article as follows:

5/16/2022 ADDENDUM by my comment: Happy anniversary, Mrs. Appalachian Irishman! What's the number? It's year 36, as far as I recall. (That was a little sidetrack.) The addendum to my 5/15/2022 article is: On 5/12/2022, while working at home, I removed my “Hadean Realm” office key from my key ring. I had figured that I would remember, the next morning, to take that key. Wrong! (I had been “too efficient!”) So, on 5/13/2022, at the “Hadean Realm” office, I informed the office manager that I'd forgotten the office key, as stated. The office manager consulted with the district manager, who is older than me and needs to have retired years ago. Conclusion, by email from the office manager: I need to hand-deliver the @#$% office key and sign that I have delivered it! Apparently, the mail-it-in option would violate an insane bureaucratic policy. That's what I was told, by email and in person, on 5/13/2022. Thus, on 5/16/2022, our wedding anniversary, my '06 Frontier and I took the longer and very curvy route, through the “great metropolis” of Luttrell, Tennessee, to the “Hadean Realm” office. (My last drive past the “kill spot” -- the Ailor Gap Road and Beard Valley Road intersection, where I almost died, on 3/29/2016 -- was on 5/13/2022). At the “Hadean Realm” office, I hand-delivered the office key to a secretary. The office manager, having been secluded in her office, appeared. Apparently, I did not have to sign any forms! I left and returned home as a free man -- completely free from the lying bureaucracy of the state of Tennessee! This comment is for a potential article with the subtitle “Opening the Soup Pot.” It could start a rough draft.

Later, I removed that comment, but I am saving it in this article, as a statement of my final aggravation with my former employer. The comment could still be a rough draft for a future article.

After I returned home, I brushed the shedding hair off Molly (our ol' puppy) three times! I washed clothes that we usually wash on weekends. I did a few other chores. I enjoyed my first day of freedom from the “Hadean Realm!”

Today, I thought about sending my wife a dozen roses, as I have done many times. Yesterday, however, my wife and I visited the Lowe's store near us. We bought four bags of mulch, four pink-looking flowers, and a red (not pink) rose bush. Afterward, we visited with her folks for a while.

Yesterday, Mrs. Appalachian Irishman and I enjoyed our wedding anniversary a day early. Today, I will not buy her a made-in-China anniversary card. She got a red rose bush yesterday.

Conclusion

Well, dear, I've enjoyed my first day of Tennessee state job retirement so far, except for the aggravation that I've noted. How are you doing? We will see, in about an hour or so, when you arrive home, baring any (God forbid) disasters.

Well, what do you know? About 5:10 PM, Mrs. Appalachian Irishman arrived home! Will she comment on this article? We will see.

I love you, dear! I mean it!