It’s time for the annual grapefruit.
A consultant who does business with the District always sends a box of grapefruit during the holidays. I usually am able to score one. We don’t buy them normally because Carl can’t partake due to drug interactions. Growing up we had a grapefruit knife. We don’t. It seems a bit much to buy a specialty knife to be used just once a year. To eat them I use an old baby spoon that the rubber coating had come off. It is an appropriate size and has a good edge.
If you look closely at the picture you can find the elusive manatees taking a peek into the creche. There is very little that is sacred when Carl starts decorating.
Speaking of decorating, we did get a tree last weekend. Rather small, but it fits the house.
Buying the tree provides us an opportunity to support the elementary school our kids attended, at least briefly for Rey. I think Carl basically doubled what they were going to charge. It was the neighborhood school when they were of that age. The neighborhood school has now changed to one taken out of mothballs when the younger population increased. If you go back further there is a closer school, but it is now a Community Center. We’re not plugged into the current school’s fundraising yet.
The holiday season also coincides with my annual review. Second one done virtually. I am going in about once a week at this point. 34 years in, and a few more to go. A few of the other old-timers are retiring. One by end of year, the next mid-year. It makes me think both back and forward.
For the imminent retiree they were asking for stories and memories. I shared a story where he helped me put a new water pump into my car. I was playing mechanic in the office parking lot after work, back when I tackled this kind of maintenance. This stemmed from my growing up in Michigan, more importantly with my cousin Jim. He was a total car geek, and I thought everyone took care of their own cars. Back to the story, I couldn’t quite move a piece out of the way to insert the new pump in place. It was a strength thing. He, the retiree, Chic, was returning from a costumer call and obliged to shove the pump in place. This allowed me to finish the job and get home that night.
Our person putting the newsletter together requested a picture. Luckily Carl has been spending a lot of time organizing our old photos and found one of the old 1980 Civic, the first new car I owned.
The picture documented the start of my move from Fort Collins, Colorado to Seattle. The car is packed with almost all of my worldly possessions. The black and white TV is belted into the front passenger seat. My cat, Frodo, was not with me. He waited in Colorado until I found a job and apartment, and came back to get Carl. What an adventure that was.
I don’t think we could fit the contents from one room of our house into a car.
Raincharm's Weblog 
December 18, 2021 at 2:32 pm |
I love grapefruit and your eating utensil is ingenious. Your tree is perfect; the small ones are all we really need. Jim was KW’s brother, right? You are much more knowledgeable about cars than I!
December 18, 2021 at 8:17 pm |
Yes, Jim is KW’s brother. We were thrown together by virtue of being close in age, along with a few others on the beach where we spent our summers. I stopped trying to do car maintenance when they got too low to be able to shimmy underneath to change the oil.