There's nothing quite like coming home from working all night in over 100 degrees in the factory to a summer rain storm.

Pull of the shirt, kick off the work shoes

and let the rain wash the sweat off of your body.

Glorious feeling!

I used to drink a lot.

Partly because I've almost always worked second shift and before cable or satellite t.v. & computers came on the scene, there wasn't much to do after work.

It was also because all of my friends drank.

After my dad passed away in '94, I got drunk one last time. After that, I began to limit my alcohol intake.

Now, I have no more than two drinks on Friday or Saturday.

I never drive after any alcohol consumption.

Hand in hand, when I cut back, those old 'drinking buddies' stopped calling or coming by.

To be honest, I don't miss them. I've grown to like myself by myself.

Imagine that... 21 years into the new century and I'm still drunk free.

And I'm o.k. with that.

The song is right...

Haters gonna hate.

Players gonna play.

I'm just gonna shake it off.

21st century advice.

~

In my building where I live, we have laundry facilities in the basement.

I've talked before about how many of my neighbors leave clothes in the washer/dryer for long periods of time.

Well, now there's a new wrinkle.

One of the washers is out of service.

Of course no one put an out of order sign on it.

I needed to do one load of laundry yesterday. Not a big load.

Luckily, I didn't put any money into the machine, because there is about 3 inches of black looking water at the bottom there.

Now I get to fire off another email to the office, because everyone else is too lazy to do so.

High today of 88 degrees with high humidity.

I was just outside and didn't sweat a drop.

Does that mean my body has adjusted to the weather?

?

I should have payed more attention in those shop classes in school.

I took my car in Thursday to have a part replaced that affects the AC.

In/out in 15 minutes.

The part cost $58.00.

The labor was $90.00.

A pretty good racket - I mean pay for not even not even 15 minutes work.

Folks, don't worry if your kid doesn't want to go to college.

A Tech school can be the answer.

~

I remain optimistic, even though I hit only one number on last nights' lottery drawing.

There are more important things in life, you know.

On Facebook, there's something you can click on to remove an annoying person's comments.

There's also a place to unfollow someone without unfriending them. I suppose it's to keep from hurting their feelings.

I take it a step further by telling them I'm unfollowing them. Kind of like a warning.

Too bad we can't unfollow people in real life.

~

I've talked in the past here about the love of my life.

Mostly about how losing her was my fault, which it was.

I'm past that. Sometimes life kicks you in the teeth, head, balls (you pick) and you have to move on.

It's been over 43 years since the breakup and over 42 years since we last spoke.

Life has moved on for me and I'm sure it has for her as well.

Sure, I have regrets about our ending, but I try to focus on the good memories of what we shared.

I think and even dream of her occasionally, but I just put that down to nostalgia, the same way you would when you hear an old song or see an old movie or t.v. show.

Imagine my surprise then when I found out she is now on FB.

I sent her a friend request. She accepted.

I sent her a message asking how she was and she said fine.

She asked me how I was and I, too, said fine.

I told her I was going to retire this year, then asked her if she had retired yet.

A part of me wanted to ask her how her life has been the last 40 some years. If she ever thought about me or dreamed about me, but I didn't.

I'm not that needy young man any more.

It's good enough to know she's alive and by her own words "doing fine."

If the conversation goes anywhere, that's great.

If it doesn't I'll survive.

I DO hope it's not another 40 some years before I hear from her again, though.

Unless medical science improves greatly, I don't think I can wait that long.

In the meantime,

Life goes on.

~

My neighbor downstairs is a nice young lady.

She just graduated from college, has a full time job (not in her field yet, although she may get one soon) and has pink hair (hey, I'm not judging).

Sunday was the first time we've ever had to talk besides a quick hello.

She told me she's 100% Mexican, although if you saw or heard her last name you'd think she was French.

In her own words she told me she is: "as white as you can get without being an albino." She said that she doesn't tan, just burns then goes back to being lily white.

As I've said, I don't judge. To me, she's a nice person who's intelligent and has a good sense of humor, with a friendly, dazzling smile.

She told me she enjoyed talking with me. I told her jokingly that we're not BFF's yet, but we're on our way.

All in all, a pleasant way to spend a little time on a humid last day of spring.

As the old '60s song said: "Reach out in the darkness and you may find a friend."