Jimbo
Let me tell you about Jimbo who was a co-worker of mine at the Federal agency I worked at for 35 years. Jimbo was (and still is) an excellent classifier - when he wants to do it. More about that in another posting. This is mainly about his cheapness and my favorite practical joke on him.
Jimbo has a motto of "Quantity - not Quality". Jim does not smoke cigarettes however, when tobacco companies were passing out free samples of cigarettes on the street, Jim would pick up as many packages as possible from the hawkers just because they were FREE. He never did anything with the cigarettes and they are probably still in his desk even several years later after the fact.
I did like to torment Jimbo with some practical jokes and he always fell for them. One of my favorites happened on one of the hottest and most humid days of summer. I came back from lunch and bought myself a Snickers bar from a vending machine. Jimbo asked me where I had gotten the candy bar. I replied - with a straight face - that it was a full sized free sample that was being passed out on the street about3 blocks from the office. Jimbo grabbed a paper bag and dashed out the door determined to fill the bag and get his FREE candy. He returned about 40 minutes later, dripping with sweat all over his body, and said there were no people giving out free samples. He made several circles of the area looking for them but did not find them. Well, I guess the reason was - THERE WERE NO FREE SAMPLES!! I did not let on to this but just said they had probably left. Jimbo did not find out about my joke for over a year when I told another co-worker and we got a good laugh - except for Jimbo.
Jim is a good friend of mine and while it was extreme fun to torment him with a practical joke now and then, he was always ready to help in a crunch. I owe Jim a lot for the knowledge he gave to me over the years and for being a good friend.
Just Some Background Info
When I decided I was going to retire from my Federal Government job on April 3, 2004, I emailed some of my already retired friends. One of them, Esther, wrote back and said, "Fed, I know that you and your wife have done a lot of travelling and will be doing a lot more travelling. Remember when you were on that train in Italy a few years ago and it pulled into the Central Station in Venice. The station was like any other station with incoming trains, sterile grey walls, noisy crowds, and loud voices over the loudspeakers. You then walked out of the huge doors of the train station and onto a plaza of the Grand Canal. This is the feeling of retirement!"
Esther was absolutely right in her description of retirement. It is freedom to do whatever you want to do and you choose when you want to do it. My wife (Mrs. Ex Fed) retired on the same day as I did. She was extremely fortunate to get her job abolished two years before her minimum age of retirement. Her office had done the same for a couple of other employees and she just told her boss that she also wanted the same treatment or she would retire on the job for the next two years!
Since our retirement, my wife and I have been doing some volunteer duties with each other and others separate. Too much closeness might not be a good idea all day long.
I worked in Human Resources for all of my Federal career for one of the largest agencies. I was a position classification specialist for my last 12 years and really liked my work. Most of the co-workers were also great people to work with. I have maintained telephone contact with a lot of them and consider them friends.
What kind of volunteer work am I doing? Well, I work with the County Park Service and I give guided tours to school groups and summer camps of the Butterfly Gardens at the Botanical Center. I had to take a short brush-up course on butterflies but it has been a lot of fun and I get just as much enjoyment each day as most of the kids who are the visitors.
I also do volunteer work with Meals on Wheels one day a week. That work only involves picking up meals that are prepared by a local hospital and delivering them to around 10 homebound seniors. It is definitely not hard work but is enjoyable and also gives some of those people the only link to "the outside" each day.
I will be going into some of my work experiences, co-worker stories, and retirement experiences on this log. I hope it proves to be enjoyable for me as a writer and for you as a reader.
