Pappa Hardy’s Musings on Life.

Well, here we are, at the end of another Year. I should be thankful I have made it through another one, but more than that, this process reminds me of the old ticking clock. I hit some milestones this year, one of which is I am now 55. I can remember when I thought 25 was old, and now I am 55. What the heck?

We have had such a good time with our kids being here the last week or so. Now, the place is cleaning out and we are going to go back to our old, boring, ho hum daily routine. We have enjoyed the youngsters. I just wish it didn’t remind me of how old I am. I got thinking today, this coming year is 2007. It is really making me consider the change of the years. I am grateful I am still here to enjoy it all, whatever it is we are supposed to be enjoying.

Heard some sad news today. Terri Dowdle, a good friend of Bonnie’s just passed away after a lot of battles with so many health challenges. I guess that is the other thing that reminds us so much of our own mortality. Well, the New Year rings in about 4 1/2 hours from now. It should be fun, right?

Today is going to suck at work. We have 3 people off on vacation, and today we have 2 people that called in sick. That wouldn’t be an issue normally, but since we have it also being the last day of the year, it could be a problem.

What really makes this a problem is the attitude of the branch manager. Our manager doesn’t mind taking days other than Friday off because he has his own business on the side and it is convenient for him to take the middle days of the week off. For me, I want to be able to go see family over an extended weekend, or spend time with my wife in some romantic location. Taking Tuesday and Wednesday to go somewhere just isn’t going to cut it. Our manager wants to clamp down on anyone taking those days off, because it isn’t convenient. What needs to happen is for the bank to staff the place, and provide substitutes, so people can enjoy their life. In other words, was work made for man, or man made for work. We should be able to enjoy some of the fruits of our labors.

Supposedly, if you were in a bank the day after Christmas, it is supposed to be a pretty quiet day, a day to get things done, a day that is not too stressful. Oh boy, have things changed. I worked today, and it was one stressful thing after another. The thing was, I would have rathered have been with the family while they were out shopping, but I had no days left to take off, and besides that, the people with more seniority were out of the bank.

Maybe someday…..when I am old and retired….I won’t have to worry about the day after. For now, it is always going to be a worry.

I love this time of the year. It isn’t necessarily because of Christmas coming, because I do love Christmas. It isn’t because of the arrival of Santa Claus, because even though I like Santa, I like the arrival of my family more.

No, the real reason is because a day or two ago was the shortest day of the year. I love this time of year because it means that longer days are coming, with more sun and more warmth, and someday sooner or later, the snow will go away and the plants will once again bloom. I do love this time of year, because it means the summer is coming. Hurray for the shortest day of the year.

I reported in my last entry that I was sick. Well, supposedly I recovered from that sickness, but I still don’t feel good. I guess maybe it is the season. I haven’t felt good for days. I hope someday, sometime, that I do feel better.

Well, I was really sick yesterday. It was not fun, being me, laying around the house, so sick I couldn’t eat nor could I do any work. I had so much to do, and was so sick that I couldn’t even do that stuff. I was so mad, at something that I of course had completely no control over. It was not fun.

I found out what you have been doing. Don’t deny it. See what follows:

It used to be that I would make a statement about being in pain after a long hard day of physical labor. Now that is my statement every morning when I wake up. I hurt terribly bad in the back, and it is just from laying in bed. There has got to be some better way to live, at least I think so after sleeping all night. It hurts just to lay there? There is no justice in that. Sleeping has got to get better. Life can be no fun if sleeping is such a painful thin!!!

Friday night is known as date night among a lot of us Mormons. That is the night when you get a chance to go out with just the spouse and have a darn good time. Last night my love and I went out to see a show. It happened to be the latest remake of the Gerald Lund books series, called The Work and the Glory III: A House Divided. Talk about dull. Part of the problem was that the books themselves cover 9 novels, and the first two movies were trying to be true to the first two or three books. I think Larry Miller must have decided he couldn’t bankroll any more of these movies because this movie was the conclusion of the movies to be made. They spent so much time trying to tie up so many ends, that the movie itself was not well made and the movie did not wrap anyone up well. The acting was also not first rate, which brings me to the second not so dull point.

When I was a kid, one of the families in our ward was the Call family. I knew one of the brothers, Rick Call, who was in my class. A year older was Roy Call. Well, Roy decided that his dream was to go into acting. He went to California, and for all I knew, he hadn’t done to well. Over the years, I knew he had been in the bust movie Waterworld (Kevin Costners $150MM fiasco). Bonnie last night saw this name up on the screen, R.D. Call, and wondered out loud if that was him. Thinking back on that name, I wondered if he was the guy that had played Governor Boggs in the movie. Sure enough, when the credits ran, that was him. Having my curiousity fueled, I went home and did some searching on the net. I found out that Mr. R.D.Call had also appeared in Waterworld, and that he had played numerous bit parts over the years. He was so unfamous that when I went and googled his name, I found a site listing his filmography, but it didn’t have a picture, or much in the way of personal data. I did find his birthplace, which confirmed my suspicion. It is sometimes interesting, as we get older, to do some searching to find out what happened to John Doe, or to Jane Doe, or in this case, Roy (aka RD Call) Call. Life takes us to some strange places. Go google a name, and see what you find.