Voice from Christmas past

Haven't been on the board in many moons. Just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Have been retired now for several years. Miss you guys.

JSC- Yeah, I tend to foul things up every now & then - Too dependent on my kids for techno......

Anyhow, wasn't a total waste, kids got to experience living at the beach for a couple of years. CA. just isn't what it was 20+ years ago. A lot has to do with the recent drought I suppose.

There's just too damn many people! Year & a half waiting list to join the local gun club - 9 hours each way to get to any "real" mountains. My old stomp'n grounds,(over the hill from you on the eastern slope), has changed dramatically. Spoiled from living in CO. for the last two decades......

CA.is a beautiful state- Too bad libs have a strangle-hold on it. Sadly, CO. is on the same path.

Our original plan was to relocate in eggs' locale'. My sis and her fam liv in Marin Co. Ended up in O'side. Might've stayed had we landed in Santa Rosa locale'. Everything happen's for a reason.

TomB: I read your post before it mysteriously vanished. Glad to hear from you too. Interesting that you tried the San Diego gig. I wouldn't have thought you would have entertained that job offer, being established as you are/were in Colorado.

Mike H Said: Whether this is a drive-by assault, or a long term attack, its good to hear some fire from your direction Steve (thats right... right?). I got a kick out of your description of retirement. You got egg to write more words in one post than I think hes written all year.

While youve been gone, Leftys gotten windy. I aint anymore.

8 years huh, boy time is just a whipping by.

Hi Mike. Yep, it's Steve. Mellowing out in your old age, while Lefty's getting rambunktios eh? Well, I reckon it's his turn.

Egg's quite the athlete and intellectual, remarkable, and I admire him greatly, as I do you and several others on this board. When I grow up, I'd like to be more like you guys ;)

I'm still waiting for those phone calls from my local previous competitors, wanting to hire some "vintage" managerial help for some special project in some way. Someone must have cut my land line, because my number's listed.. :laugh: Seriously though, there were three contractors here for every job during the last extended economic fiasco that lasted seemingly forever, and many are still scrounging for every job to keep the crews together. The big boys moved in from down south, and took over most of the large builders' work.

Has anyone heard from ole Troop, or Andy Schindler? What's the status on Frank's medical problems?

Whether this is a drive-by assault, or a long term attack, it's good to hear some fire from your direction Steve (that's right... right?). I got a kick out of your description of retirement. You got egg to write more words in one post than I think he's written all year.

While you've been gone, Lefty's gotten windy. I ain't anymore.

8 years huh, boy time is just a whipping by.

I know what you mean about hobby and identity. That's going to be a tough one even though I have some other consuming hobbies. I think the getting out of shape thing is probably worrying me the most.

A lot of us in this business probably fall into that wierd category of "hardest working lazy people I know." I really don't want lazy to get the upper hand and keep all the juices from flowing. I know that being squeezed is kind of what it takes to keep me in the rock and roll mode.

Whevever I start getting out of shape I get a little crazy. I know my days are numbered though, they just have to be. Next year is almost sold out already except for some time I purposely keep open. After that I will actually be flat-out seventy...you're right. I can still pour it on but I don't bounce back quite as fast. Thinking back on it though, I was at my boggiest in my late forties and then picked it up again.

There is that bucket list though to consider. Different kind of work. "Watch that sun how steady he run; don't let him catch you w/your work undone."

Still think about that horrible business agent Pinky once in awhile. God rest his miserable soul. Don't know how much a fan of Country and Western you are but I was really sad when that Oildale/Bakersfield superstar passed on. Was a time not too very long ago when Bakersfield and Fresno were the fastest growing cities in the United States. I'm actually about ready to consider getting at least a half day's ride from any serious traffic and that's getting harder and harder to do.

Cigars are great. My great-grandfather was a cigar maker in Kansas and Illinois. I love smoking them whenever I get the chance. But... they're expensive and I have a hard enough time pushing my pipe on people as it is. Just about every election there's another increase on tobacco tax just because, you know, tobacco users are bad. They don't even have the decency to pretend by alternating between vices. Fewer and fewer people smoke so what's it to them? If that's the case why not keep increasing the tax on books since fewer and fewer people ever bother to read anymore either.

Speaking of which, I've got about eight feet of shelf space in my office dedicated to trade binders. That's no big deal I suppose, but when a guy wanted some info and I took him into the office to get it for him he took a look at the rest of the books there that have nothing to do with the trade whatsoever, probably fifty feet of shelf space and went "Wow. I've never seen anybody with so many books." I didn't say it but I was thinking I wished I could remember a good half of what's in them all, but those are only the ones I just have to have or keep for reference. If that's all I poured into my head in seventy years I would have to consider myself truly ignorant, not just dull.

One of those books is titled The Wages of Sin, a collection of great short stories from the Bakersfield area written by a college professor I know who grew up with Merle Haggard. I haven't looked at it for twenty years, but it was a colorful read about real life. No stupid ads every five minutes in it either. (Guess what kind of a mood I'm in.) Merry Christmas to you though and if I could send you some of this rain we've been having, I'd push it right down there for y'all. Not getting enough rain will really make people crazy.

egg Said: Good to hear from you. Was thinking about you just the other day and wondering how you are. Hows Bakersfield these days?

Hi Eggster.

Bakersfield has quite a bit of new construction going on. Truthfully, it's hard to appreciate it, knowing that I don't have any part of it anymore. We're still at least a third below normal rainfall, barely over an inch for the season so far.

I think about you sometimes, still up on the roof and pushing 70. I'm so out of shape now, that I think a heart attack or stroke is what I'd get if I tried it now.

I do have a little side venture flipping houses with my younger son. It's low stress and low liability, and supports my new-found cigar obsession.

Vaa Fakaosifolau Said: Hey JSC long time no see Merry Christmas back to you too How is retirement?

Retirement, like everything else, has its good and bad aspects. I can do pretty much anything I want, when I want, and answer to nobody except Mama. I'm completely debt free, except of course, for perpetual taxes.

Some of the downside is that the roofing business was more than a career. It was also my primary hobby and, after 36 years in business, was also my identity.

I was never in the military, but I would liken retirement to PTSD, at least initially. It's been about 8 years since I retired, and I'm still not completely adjusted. OTOH, I sleep like a baby at night, instead of the sleepless gut wrenching and gnashing of teeth that roofing can give you. The class action lawyers have finally dropped by the wayside too.

Good to hear from you. Was thinking about you just the other day and wondering how you are. How's Bakersfield these days?

Merry Christmas to all of you,what is everyone's plans for Christmas?

Right back at you too! Merry Christmas!