Retiring

Well that's it. I'm done. After 35 years I have worked my last day at the big corporation. It was a topsy turvy ride with some great jobs I really enjoyed doing and others, such as what I have been doing for the last 7 years, that I truly disliked doing.
Over the years I have been suspended a couple of times, once for a week for believe it or not calling a fellow worker names. I felt vindicated just a few days later though when one of my descriptions for him, incompetent, was proved correct when he set a customers house on fire. Another time a tractor trailer scraped my truck and then took off while I was 35 feet in the air working in the bucket. Although I was 35 feet away from the steering wheel the company decided I should not have been in that place at that time. It was classified as a preventable accident and as a consequence my safe drivers award was taken away. It was the epitome of a kangaroo court.
I have worked in manholes, pits, at ground level, high in the air in bucket trucks and hanging off of poles on spurs. Jobs where I was building things were the ones I derived the most satisfaction from. There is nothing quite like finishing up a job, standing back and taking pride in the quality job you have just completed. I also remember finishing jobs where I may have cut a corner or two and in the end regretting doing so. Cut corners very rarely save you much time in the long run.
I did jobs that would last as little as a day to rehabbing entire neighbourhoods which in one case took me six months. It was a proud day when the guys who finished their part of the work complimented me on how smoothly everything went for them due to a job well done by me.
My favourite job was working on the line crew placing poles and aerial cable. We called it the brute force and ignorance crew and our motto was if it doesn't fit, get a bigger hammer. It was hard physical work which I loved doing. We had a lot of laughs especially when I walked around one day wondering where the hell that smell of dog shit was coming from. Everywhere I went that smell followed. I checked my boots, looked everywhere I could see on my body and no dog shit. I finally had to go up to my buddy and ask him if he could see any shit on me. I started to turn around and within a second he was laughing hysterically at me. I had been walking around for the last half hour with a big wad of dog shit on my hard hat. My hat fell off when I had bent over to pick something up and I had no idea that it landed on a giant freshie from what had to have been a very large dog. Needless to say my nickname was Shithead for the next week or so.
So now I am a retiree. I know I'm not the first to say "where has the time gone?" I'm 56 now and I am one of the lucky few who has a company paid pension and a financial position which should leave me living comfortably for the rest of my life. I should have nothing to worry about.....but a TV commercial has got my worrying about a new social problem that could start affecting me tomorrow. It's called..........ELDER ABUSE!!!!!!!!! I'm afraid, very afraid.