Get down in a Ditch!

I went to the Movies last night and saw Blindness. It is based on a Pulitzer Prize winning book that Erika found and I read last year. The movie was disturbing, as was the book. The book was written in a stream of consciousness style and was a hard read until you got into the rhythm. I thought the movie stopped a bit short.

I always heard of people who stayed all day to see other movies in the multi-plex’s but never tried this scam. I had nothing better to do so I decided to sneak into the Brad Pitt/George Clooney movie, “Burn after Reading”. I was glad I didn’t pay to see it, but had a laugh or two.

Back to the Story: Our good friends Joe and Molly arrived the night of the Tornado. Joe was one of the first people that I thought about when we first came to the Villages. He was an Electrician at Delphi, and an avid golfer, and liked to stay busy. We’d been friends for 30 years and he had recently begun dating Molly. Molly is the youngest of our group. She was a Union officer who was barley 19 when she started at Delphi. I had always liked and respected Molly. She’s smart, has a quick wit and laughs easily. They must have wondered what they got into when the Tornado hit.

My emergency plan left something to be desired. I went to bed that night confident that the weather was way north of us. At 3 AM I woke to the warnings from the weather guy that if you were in a mobile home, get down in a ditch or somewhere safe. I laid awake a bit wondering where the dog’s leash was and considered getting everyone up. The next thing I knew I had fallen back asleep, it was morning and the power was out. Not a great plan. I’ll have to do better next time. Thank god there will be an opportunity to be a next time. We took our carts over to Mallory to see the damage and were in shock at the carnage.

Joe must not have been too upset about the weather because before the end of his vacation he bought a place a few blocks away. He mused that he had spent a lot of money on vacation in the past, but this seemed excessive.

We have all committed to the early retirement package and are considering the month we will go. Our leadership has STRONGLY advised us all to consider the offer. As Dylan said: “The times they are a changing”. We are assembling quite a group here on the Historic side. I couldn’t be happier to be able to share my retirement with all of these wonderful friends.