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

 Introduction

Howdy, dear. You will be home soon – Lord willing, as I had started to write.

This is not a made-in-China anniversary card, to Mrs. Appalachian Irishman. I hope that she likes it. It doesn't matter, if y'all like it – well maybe a little. HAPPY 36th ANNIVERSARY, DEAR!

5/16/1986

Well, the courting started, at the 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 fun with my friends – since I was the fill-in preacher, at the Rogersville Church of Christ, for those few months.

Over the course of various courting details, Mrs. Appalachian Irishman and I became husband and wife, on 5/16/1986. It was a Friday evening, in Etowah, Tennessee. The weather was sunny, cool, and crisp. A high pressure system was dominate. I remember.

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

5/16/2022

On Sunday, 5/16/2021, I wrote, “5/16/2021: THIRTY-FIVE YEARS AS BUT A DAY.” I would not change a word now. I'm glad that my wife finally got around to posting a comment for that article. Will she post a comment, for this article? We will see.

Yesterday, I wrote, “I RETIRED: MY FUTURE, UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY AWAITS! (published 5-15-2022; article #325).” Today, 36th wedding anniversary date, I commented on my own 5/15/2022 article, at 1:52 PM:

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 had removed my “Hadean Realm” office key, from my key ring. I had figured that I would remember, on 5/13/2022, to take that key. WRONG! (I had been “too efficient!”) So, on 5/13/2022, at “Hadean Realm” office, I informed office manager, re: I'd forgotten the office key, as stated. Office manager consulted with district manager (who is older than me and needs to have retired years ago). Conclusion: email from office manager: I need to hand deliver the @#$% office key and SIGN that I delivered it by hand! The mail-it-in option was, apparently, a violation of some type of bureaucratic policy insanity. That's what I was TOLD, by email and in person, on 5/13/2022. Therefore, on 5/16/2022, wedding anniversary day, my '06 Frontier and I drove – via the longer and very curvy route, through the “great metropolis” of Luttrell, Tennessee – to the “Hadean Realm” office. (My last drive past the “kill spot,” at the Ailor Gap Road intersection with Beard Valley Road; https://www.google.com/maps/@36.2154803,-83.8327022,60m/data=!3m1!1e3!5m1!1e4, where I almost died, on 3/29/2016, was on 5/13/2022). At “Hadean Realm” office, I hand freakin' delivered the @#$% office key, to a secretary. The office manager, having been secluded in her office, with door shut, appeared. APPARENTLY, I DID NOT HAVE TO SIGN ANY @#$% FORM! I left and returned home – as a free man – free from the State of Tennessee LYING bureaucracy! This comment is for my future article, with subtitle “Opening the Soup Pot.” This comment starts my rough draft document. I AM A FREE MAN (from Tennessee State bureaucracy) – in a once free and great nation.

After I returned home, I got a bunch of sheddings off Molly (our ol' puppy) – three times! I washed the laundry that we usually wash on weekends. I did a few other things. I ENJOYED my first day of FREEDOM – from the Tennessee employer “Hadean Realm!”

I almost decided to send my wife a dozen roses today – by the call and credit card route – as I have done many times. Yesterday, however, my wife and I graced the Lowe's location near us. We bought four bags of mulch, four pink-looking flowers, and a RED (not PINK) rose plant. Afterward, we visited her folks a while.

Mrs. Appalachian Irishman and I had a wedding anniversary a day early – yesterday. I ain't buying any made-in-China anniversary card for her. We bought her RED rose plant yesterday. Today, she'd better not give me a made-in-China anniversary card!

Conclusion

Well, dear, I've enjoyed my FIRST day of Tennessee state job retirement, so far. 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.

Love you, dear! I mean it!