05-24-2009

On March 27th Jerilyn's brother, Wayne, passed away. He was 72
years old, suffered from juvenile diabetes and for the past 5
years and was on dialysis. Wayne was a good guy, a genius with
all things mechanical and could talk on almost any subject. A
conversation with him was entertaining and informative. I didn't
always agree with him, but I always enjoyed him. He was my "go
to guy" if I had problems with my lawn tractor (I bought it from
him). His niece, Rachel, gave a moving eulogy at his funeral.
You could easily sense how much those dear to him were going to
miss him. The world definitely needs more people like Wayne
Moger.

I just recently finished preparing and submitting my tax forms
and as luck would have it, I received a change from a firm we own
stock in that changes the way the dividends are reported. The
change is so significant (positively), that we will need to amend
our returns. Like you, I despise the paperwork required to file
tax returns. To my way of thinking, everyone that makes over
$30,000 per year pays 10% and voila it is done! The important
thing here is the politicians would not be allowed to tinker with
it. If they did, eventually, it would have so many exceptions we
would be back to where we are now. The other thing I would do is
require all of our different governments (federal,state,local) to
balance their budgets. They should only be allowed to borrow
money for emergencies and that would have to be approved by a
council of ordinary citizens (not politicians). I know all of
this sounds overly simplistic, but I have discovered that
"simple" can add value to plenty of things.

On June 12th & 13th Jerilyn and I will be attending my 50th high
school class reunion in my hometown. We have one every 5 years
and they are always enjoyable. With this visit I am able to look
at my classmates and discern how much I have aged. Every morning
I get up, wash my face, shave and look in the mirror as I comb my
hair, noticing the wrinkles that slowly spread, like swampland
from too much rain, all over my face. I read that if you smile
too much it will cause wrinkles (Sophia Loren). I must have had
a constant smile most of my life. On the bright side I get
discounts at all the stores without asking and I get called "sir"
a lot. People open doors for me often and inform me to be
careful when I have to step up or down something. My mother said
to me one time, several years before she passed away, "Tommy Joe,
how old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?" . My
answer now probably would be 50, but I have to admit, these old
bones are showing their wear and tear.

I have been working on installing an outside light down by the
pier. This project has taken much longer than I anticipated. I
had to dig a trench 120 feet, past several trees and thru two
flower beds. The light is mounted 15 feet high on one of our
trees. Being one that doesn't like heights has proven to be a
real hindrance to this project. I have several friends that have
fallen off ladders and been severely injured, so this hasn't
helped me in my effort to overcome this fear. The need for the
light became necessary when our neighbors down the creek (Dick &
Millie) had their light go on the fritz and were unable to get
it working. Jerilyn depended on that light to be able to see
when it was raining at night. The unhappiness on her face was
not what I wanted to see, hence the need for the light.
Thankfully, the project is nearing the end. At least the hard
part is done (digging the trench and mounting the light).

Two of our dear friends (Dick & Millie) moved to North Carolina a
few weeks ago. We were sad to see them go. Both of them were
very active in our church (Tabernacle United Methodist) and
Millie sang in the choir. They moved into a retirement community
out there to be near their daughter. To do so, they needed to
downsize their belongings. I currently am the proud owner of
Dick's boat, his weather station, several winches, a pair of work
shoes and a real nifty hat. Every day I put his shoes on I
think of him. What a nice reminder of a dear friend.

A single friend of mine wrote me recently about being lonely. I
was able to commiserate with her, because, I too, experienced
that after my first wife and I separated. I have come to the
conclusion that life is like having all your friends and
relatives on a bus. That bus runs the same route constantly.
People you care for get off and never get back on. Loneliness
and sadness occur each time that happens. You try to replace
those dear people with the new passengers that get on. There
seems to be a need to have a certain occupancy level on that bus.
I believe we all need a network of friends to make our life
enjoyable. None of us want to ride the bus of life alone. At
some point our turn comes to step off that bus. I will judge my
life on how many of those remaining miss me.