Day Sixty-five: Drinks after work

I'm almost caught up with the work I planned on having done two days ago and I'm sore. After the washing the truck, I washed the Prius. I hadn't washed it since the off-roading in Oregon, two weeks and two thousand miles before. It was loaded with bugs. I decided to address the bugs head on as that was the way that I had picked them up so to speak. (This meant washing the hood and front immediately after I washed the top.) Some of the places I found bug residue made me think that some bugs must have crawled after impact. The bugs took so much "elbow grease," I was regretting washing the truck first. But if I hadn't it would probably still be out there unwashed. I even opened the doors and wiped off the insides. Unfortunately, I still have windows and vacuuming to do. This is all in preparation for my son's wedding. He will be driving the truck around and I will be driving my parents around.

After the washing, I went and bought another hose. Even though it is probably too late, I now can sprinkle the yard, which I did for at least an hour. In that hour I cleaned myself up in preparation for heading in to the city for "drinks after work."

Now, washing cars are a great deal of effort, but are not truly work. But the rest of the attendees were working. So much so that no one was available to take my work laptop off of my hands. I waited around for a half an hour before someone was found. What I returned was my last physical tie to my former employer. (I'll let you know who on day three hundred and sixty six as well as the reason for the delay.)

The drinks after work at a bar named 83-Proof was the first time I had seen these particular people in over two months. We had a little bit of catching up to do and our conversations, sometimes several at once, were far ranging. One question was asked of me, did I have any advice, and at that moment, it came together for me and I did. I prefaced it with: "For the long time of her illness I was doing everything I could for my wife and when I wasn't doing that, I was doing everything I could for my employer. After she passed away, I buried myself in my work. Now I realize that I needed to do something for me and have been recently. But my advice is to make sure you are doing something for yourself. It makes all the other things you do more valuable."

And, I really do value this Life after Layoff. Every day I find something else I want to do and my list is impossibly long right now but making that list is also something I am doing for myself.