Sunday is the shortest day of the year! Everything gets better after that.
Grasshopper No.4 was describing his holiday schedule to me. It sounded vaguely familiar. Most people working in a manufacturing environment (i.e. making cookies or in No.4’s case, pumps and compressors), have a large number of days off between Christmas and New Years Day. Officially there is the day before Christmas, Christmas Day, the Day before New Years and New Years Day. Mix in “floating holidays” and a little vacation and you end up with a lot of time off. Truly Happy Holidays.
I see that the U.S. is re-establishing relations with Cuba, our communist neighbor 90 miles to the south. I’m not sure what that means but I have been watching news broadcasts from “Cuber” recently. Cubans have had to keep their American cars from the 1950’s because they were not allowed to trade or import new cars. The streets are filled with old Chevy’s, Plymouths, Fords and a few Oldsmobiles. It is like stepping out of a time capsule and going back to my high school years (1954-1958). It is amazing how many times Cubans rebuilt an engine or replaced a rusting fender.
I did own a few “car projects” over the years. My biggest effort was the 1960 used Rambler (by Nash). Your Mom and I were just married and broke. We had the cost of finishing college, starting a job, and raising 3 young kids. Buying new car was just behind baby food and feeding a family. The Rambler engine would burn out the valves every 30,ooo miles requiring major engine overhaul. Finally on a warm May morning in 1965 on the way to work in Milwaukee, the Rambler “puked” (to use Grasshopper No.5’s description). I pulled up to an intersection, the car engine stopped and it was officially a pile of junk. I wonder what the Cubans would have done because they did not have the option of a new car. The result of my “Rambler Puke” was my first financed car, a 1965 dark blue Chevrolet Bel-Air V-8 with a stick shift on the column. It had an AM radio. That’s it. No Blue Tooth, FM, seat belts or air conditioner. It was beautiful. It was mine.
I see UW Badgers got past the “job posting” cherade. Paul Chryst is now the official coach of the UW football team. It is a good fit. He will start with a salary of $2.3 million per year with guaranteed annual increases. How do I get a job like that?
Our family knows Santa! In fact, Santa and I are having lunch today.
Love,
Dad