Nobody ever wrote a play entitled ....

"How to succeed as a flunky after you've been the boss" but I could. Now obviously if I'd been wildly successful in the first five decades of employment I wouldn't be soldiering on as a flunky. And I'm not complaining. In fact, I'm grateful that someone still finds my flunky skills worth paying for. (I'm also pretty grateful that I get a Social Security check every month to support my working!)

However, it is a learning curve. After many years of being the writer, producer, planner for business and events, for companies and organizations, its not fun to be the last to hear about something. Or to learn that after fifty years as a writer I am no longer capable of providing simple press releases, well maybe still capable but someone else will now write them.

Those who point to "birth order" thinking know that as a first born I am naturally anxious to please and I guess that includes some form of acknowledgement that I have "pleased." Flunkies do not get acknowledgement. They get a paycheck. Flunkies do not get overtime they get "comp" time, sometimes. They also do not get to choose their lunch hour.

This was not a great week at work ... can you tell? Maybe its as simple as forty hours are a lot now when fifty hours didn't seem so much back then. Maybe its this lovely Texas Summer that seems a little tougher than usual. Maybe I'm just worn out or a big old whiner. I am looking forward to a day of vacation in another couple of weeks, a trip to Mexico with friends and also a visit to Katelyn, Alabama (the University), and "Le Miz" in September. It helps to have some things to which one can look forward.

A word to the younger among you ... make some plans about what you want to be when you grow old ... probably flunky shouldn't be your first, or second, choice.

Why I Love Navasota, TX

I love my little town of Navasota because it lets me live and work here. Navasota has about 7000 people, a small creek, some interesting history and historical buildings, and a beautiful new City Hall. I work in the new city hall as a clerk in the Utility Department.
As a person on a fixed income, with little or no interest in antiques and other people's old stuff, there are not a lot of things on which to spend my money. If there is something I "need" that's not available here, in twenty minutes I'm in the booming twinopolis of Bryan/College Station and they have darn near everything I could ever need and lots of other stuff too.
With my earlier "retirement" and move to Brenham I was sure I could find a full time job, reasonably priced housing and other comforts but I never (three years) found a full time job and living was more costlier. I have now lived in Navasota for four years in a spacious and quirky "loft" apartment overlooking the railroad tracks and with a one block walk to my new office ... as it was to my old office ... and it was only a block more to the first place I worked here.
I am not sure why I have put 29,000 miles on my car in a year and a half when I walk to work every day, but I have.
I am probably not cut out for working in small city government but I am grateful for the opportunity to learn all these new things at the age of 70. Gas, water, wastewater and sewer require a pretty high learning curve. The parts that go into those utilities are infinite, varied and strangely named, ie. nipple, spud, collar, and riser. The amount of government reporting and paperwork(federal and state) required to operate the various plants, pipelines and chemicals are even more infinite. (note: I know there is nothing "more infinite" it just seems so.)
It turns out that public utilities require the hard work of a lot of very macho guys ... much more macho than radio, advertising or the "car bid'ness" ... another curve I am trying to navigate.
And then there are "the folks" which every town has. These are the folks for whom nothing is ever good enough, quick enough, cheap enough or designed for their special needs. They are unpleasant, unreasonable, unrelenting and must be treated with the utmost tact and diplomacy ... now we are talking "big curve." No one has ever labeled me with those terms.
Bottom line; great town with lots of wonderful people, a job that's hard work with some excellent benefits and some not so. I am grateful, challenged, exhausted and periodically pissed off ... but I'm not bored or broke!
Why don't you come by and see me sometime ... showing off our new digs is one of my most favorite things to do ... the landscape is going in and new streets not far behind.
I am proud to be here.