Victory, Defeat, Lamenting, and an Office Party

The Christmas Tree is Finished - I was Trusted with the Tinsel

My garage door opener saga continues.  I briefly felt victorious when I showed up at the car rental office and they had a device which was the correct model I was stupid enough to leave in my rental penance vehicle.  I drove home feeling blessed and incredibly lucky.  Those feelings lasted until I first tried the damned thing on the recalcitrant garage doors; no matter how hard I pushed (and prayed) there was no reaction from the doors.  When I compared it to the one that I did have for my car I realized it was not the correct one.  Someone as dumb as me had done the same thing with the exact same model of garage door opener.  So I go back to the rental office on Monday and see if they can contact whoever rented the car after me – such a dunce.  My lesson in humiliating idiocy continues.

We received a scare from down south when my wife started receiving messages from Panamanian friends about a serious earthquake in her hometown.  The epicenter was very close to the town of David where most of her family still lives.  She was relieved to be able to get a call through and learn everybody was okay, if a little shaken (on a number of levels).  They reported some gaping holes in the streets around the city center and store shelves spilling their entire contents into the aisles.  It was 5.9 on the Richter scale so this was no little quake - but agina, everybody was okay.

The Christmas Party

There was an upside yesterday despite the pouring cold rain that permeated the day – the annual office Christmas party.  This was the first year that management and the union did the party together.  We rented a local Elks club for the night and had a fantastic time.  My wife provided yet another of my Christmas gifts with my outfit for the night (at this rate – there’ll be nothing under the tree).  I balked at not wearing a red sweater though – this was a Christmas party after all.  She finally acquiesced to my demands.

Our Table

I think the party was kind of surreal for the lower level union employees.  This was the first time for many of them to see the bosses in a social situation.   I’m sure the union leadership is not always extremely flattering in their description of us so this was a chance to see the human side (with all that entails).  The party was a complete success and a real feather in the cap of my excellent boss who teamed up with the Union Business Agent to make it happen.  The political boss showed up for a while and was impressed by how far we’ve come over the past few years.

My Wife in Action Electric Sliding

They had a very good band playing oldies and a really tasty meal.  The band had my wife straining at the bit to get through the entire speeches/prize giving and dinner so she could dominate the dance floor.  I think it was a little shocking for the employees to see all the gray haired managers out on the dance floor.  It was strange from my side to see all the employees out for their usual uniforms.  Any rancor that may exist between us stood nary a chance against the Christmas spirit and for one night we were all just middle aged partiers looking to share in some of that spirit.

Me Dancing with the Boss' Wife

Inevitably, as the night wore on, the designated drunk for the night made his appearance (every big party like this seems to have one).  We have a very nice lady working for us who, to be gentle, is dentally challenged.  Her date was the drunk.  He first cajoled the band into letting him play the drums during a break.  He corralled me, much to his date’s chagrin, as the party was winding down.  He claimed he was a retired Navy SEAL (lot of those going around since Bin Laden went down) despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary. 

My Gorgeous Date Last Night

He grabbed my hand when I shook his upon being introduced and proceeded to explain why I should hire him to supervise the cleaning of buses (what all retired SEALs aspire to, I’m sure).  At least that’s what I think he was saying because the band was at full throat and I was only picking up about every third or fourth word.  I just nodded sagely when he came up for breath.  He eventually wound down and wandered off and when my excellent boss asked me what he wanted – I said I wasn’t entirely sure but he was having so much fun explaining it I just let him go. 

None of this distracted from the fun of the evening.  It really is testimony to the strength of the Christmas season, except for all the grinches out there.  Now if I can just find that damned remote I can close what I now call my Moronic Episode.

While waiting out my wife’s pre-party preparation phase (I was called upon for some emergency nail polish repair operations) I finished the next in the Travis McGee series – The Turquoise Lament (great title).  MacDonald has his hero jetting to Hawaii to rescue the daughter of an old friend who saved McGee’s life once.  The girl thinks her new husband is trying to kill her or drive her crazy.  This sends McGee down a trail of dead bodies a psychopath and his lawyer enabler have strewn in their path.  He spends a lot of time back in Fort Lauderdale until a climatic confrontation in Pago Pago of all places.

Since I’ve read the entire series in order I can see MacDonald starting to fade a little over the last couple of books.  He’s achieved a significant amount of fame with the McGee character at the point this book was written and there were some plot lines here that didn’t ring true.  That being said it was still an excellent read and MacDonald spent some time exploring the importance of McGee’s relationship with Meyer which is always entertaining.  Meyer is stricken down with a dangerous illness and there is a question as to his survival which has McGee pondering his future in these words from The Turquoise Lament: 

“I had not rally admitted to myself the chance that the Meyer I knew was gone forever.  Too high a fever over too long can cook the little synapses in your skull.  Were Meyer to become a very dull fellow, I would have seen to it that he had a pretty good life, considering.  But it would have been a gesture of thanks to the Meyer I had once known.  But this thing with the shrunken saffron face and the bright eyes was my friend, rising from the valley of the shadows.  I went over and looked out the window to blink away, in quasi privacy, the stinging feeling in my eyes.”