YANKED RIGHT OUTTA THE SOCKET (September 13, Part II): I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea here. Many, many, many people in this country are in much worse shape than I (COVID victims, wildfire victims, hurricane victims, folks who have no choice but to keep working and risk their lives during the pandemic).
So maybe it's better to explain this as a "strange feeling" and not a complaint.
I was contemplating retiring next year (2021-2022 school year). I was already rehearsing my little retirement speech to the kids, many who have grown up with me as their bus driver (10 years on the same route!). I could already envision my retirement party at the Maple Tree Supper Club, which beyond being the place where our bus company throws retirement parties, is also my very favorite restaurant--also my wife's.
When we came in from our routes on Friday the Thirteenth of March, we were informed that due to COVID, school was officially over for the year. Just like that. It was like being yanked out of a wall socket. We knew something was coming, but we had no time to prepare.
After a long and disorienting weekend, it occurred to me that I might never see any of my kids again (we don't live in the same town) and that "official retirement" wasn't in the cards. I'm old enough to draw Social Security--though I hadn't yet, preferring to work while I was able even if my health is beginning to fade--and I correctly predicted that, with no federal government plan to contain the virus (here it is September with 200,000 dead, and we're STILL WAITING!) school was NOT going to start up in the fall.
It didn't.
TO BE CONTINUED
Posted by Alois on
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