Last evening we had to put on a pair of Arctic Grip foot pads to even walk on the stuff. This morning, the temperature is 32° and the wind is blowing. The icicles on the back roof are dripping like a leaky faucet, some snow is melting, yet the ice cover on the ground is rigidly treacherous to walk on. It is solid and unyielding under foot (and butt if you’re not careful). All I must do today is feed and water the animals, so if I must put the Arctic Grips on again, it is only for a half hour or so anyway. I walk to the barn and remove them, do the barn work and then put them back on again, drive the John Deere to the other barn and I can walk around to feed and water there. I drive back tom the big barn, park and walk back to the house, done for the day. That’s not so bad. I do pity the poor folks that must travel to work in this, or actually work outside in this mess to make a living. I remember how it was when I was working. There is nothing worse than clearing freezing rain from the car windshield, as you slip and fall everywhere you go in the dark. (I always went to work in the dark and came home in the dark toward the end of my career as an underpaid, stupid slave) Well, I feel fortunate I need no longer do that....at least not too often.
Thinking about life and the past and friends can really bring you down. I guess I am a different type of person than most. I relish friendship and although I worked with many, many people in my life, you seldom meet up with a true friend. I thought I had some, but really, when it’s all said and done, I only have one guy I worked with who emails me regularly with news of what’s happening back there and occasionally calls me on the phone. We didn’t always see eye to eye on issues at work, but got along in spite of our ideas or methods. He recently lost his wife and my heart ached for him and his loss. I’d say we were through enough in our working career, that our friendship is now invincible and will last until one of us passes on. Other friendships I thought I had... continually prove to be a mere acquaintance...per their comprehension, for they do not value friendship enough to converse, but for a few jokes or a three line attempt at a conversation now and then.
I want to take time to write to them...telling them I miss them...value their friendship and knowing how they and their family are doing. More than often, I write and never receive a reply... Busy they say...no time to write...run, run, run...yet you see joke, after joke, after joke...but they cannot write to say how they are or what is going on in their life and how their family is doing.
I was a supervisor... a superintendant of maintenance, at a big industrial complex in Central Pa. There were two other sister facilities south of us, which I was occasionally sent to with the task of helping their crew solve problems. I had nine multi-craftsman working for me, keeping the production equipment running and the facility maintained. I knew hundreds of the workers at all three locations. Some were friends....some acquaintances...none interested enough to look me up after all this time. None were interested in me except for good ol’ Walt.
Friends are few and far between and some people never actually even had any...once they look back over the years and assess their lives. In retrospect to my life, how I’ve conducted myself and cherished those I thought were friends over the years, I’ve come up with some advice about dealing with friendships in your lives... free to all of you who will take it.
• First and foremost, never pass up an opportunity to be a friend to anyone....
• Never expect that the friendship will ever blossom, except in your eyes....
• Never plan tomorrow on the promises of a friend, but never dismiss them either...
• Never expect a return in kind for something voluntarily performed...
• Never expect a friend to hold the same value to your friendship, as you assign to theirs...
• By performing all the above...you will undoubtedly know if you’ve ever really found a true friend in life, for they shine above all others...
• Once you've found a true friend...treat them like you want them to treat you. The rest is up to them.
037505Cluckin' "A" Critter Farm, LLC
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