How Old Am I Getting?

Last night at work we had a horrible thunderstorm pass over the airport (right by us) around six. It only lasted about twenty minutes but was packing a mighty fierce lightning punch. Shortly after, the credit card system went down...and so did we.

We have a crash kit we keep in the office to process cards manually when the system goes offline and customers are waiting to pay with their card. Unfortunately the kit doesn't include one of these

and is probably a good thing, the younger servers and customers are quite confused simply by these slips of paper as a receipt...

They would think the manual imprinter was some sort of chip reading device connected to the Cloud somehow.

I had to show two different young couples how to read it and how to finish filling it out, and yes, which copy was theirs to keep.

Without the imprinter it took forever to copy each and every card number, expiration date, name and type of card on every slip before ever even filling in the amount to have it signed. Managers were helping us fill out slips for the more impatient customers and luckily the system came back on in about thirty more minutes.

Sometimes I'll say something at work to one of my younger co workers and they look at me like I've just spoken to them in a foreign language they don't know.

Apparently the word smattering isn't used very much anymore.

Neither is stove-up and for sure, not slap-full.



It's like a double whammy.

 I'm getting old and I'm a southern bumpkin.

Thank You Jesus for letting me at least stay slim.

I work mostly night shifts in an extremely dark dining room in a pretty nice restaurant. The lighting takes ten years off my face and puts an extra fifty in my pocket every shift.

My daughter, who is my (go to to be hip) girl , also reminds me every time I sound embarrassingly old.

I will say working with younger people has kept me a little more in the loop.

Yeah, I'm Woke.

I read something the other day on my childhood friends' social media page between herself and her recently grown son.

This was my 'Woke' moment.

Thank God I was alone...I laughed out loud.

The other day Sam looked at me and said where are your eyebrows. On my chin son. They are on my chin

Yeah, life is over half way done.

Better start making sure every minute counts.

Tim has taken on a new position, luckily with a new paycheck.

He led us while we were plush. He faltered through no fault of his own but  family and friends always had our back. Always.

Now he is taking care of all of us and working crazy freakin' hours and many times miles from home.

I 've been writing this post for over three hours, but when I got to the point about what Tim, Ole Jed, Ball and Chain, the father of my kids...has done and endures, this song came on the station I am streaming as I write. 

It used to be 'Still The One" and will always be special to our young life together.

For the grown up version of us?

It's the version after the decade which both of us worried about even making it through...together or apart.

We never cheated on each other in almost thirty years. To me that is hands down a win.

 Sometimes I didn't feel like being with him but I never felt like being with someone else.

Tim is the one for me.

 I've waited on him and he has waited on me. Luckily I seem to be the one for him as well.

Sometimes ya get it right.

He's my first, my last, my everything.

It's the song. It's the orchestra, it's his voice...it's the lyrics. It's the man I married...a pasty white dude who loved me, with all my faults.

Everyone should be lucky enough to feel this way about someone.

Till next time, COTTON

Grab life, hold on and roll with it. We got one shot.