Variety is all there is

Monica is from Cincinnati and she's been here 25 years. All her family is elsewhere in warm places and so she travels a lot on holidays. She just retired last September after 16 years at Froedtert in the Medicare reporting division.

Before I knew she was going for a ride in the shuttle I saw her alone in the waiting room. I told her how to change the channel if she wished.

"I don't have a television any more.” 

“Congratulations. Maybe you could give a course or something. Some people need help.” 

Apparently she wanted to paint a back bedroom. Her TV was also a VGA monitor for her desktop and it all sat on a large desk. She didn’t really like the desk. She took it apart, set it on the curb and never saw it again. Maybe that’s what happened to the TV. Or maybe she donated it. I forget. She has a laptop and an iPad. Monica does not miss the TV at all. It’s been six months now.

So she retired, changed gears and didn't slow down. She's the co-administrator of the food bank at her church and on Thursdays she stocks shelves at a food bank downtown and … something else. And, she is looking into volunteering at the local NODA chapter. NODA stands for No One Dies Alone. Apparently they coordinate with hospice teams ... no one should die alone.

Her job took her to Chicago for awhile years ago and then called her to Milwaukee. She had certainly heard of Milwaukee before. She drove out of Chicago clean and dry. The weather was fine until she hit the state line. All of a sudden there were 12 inch drifts and she fell in love. It’s been home ever since.

She also is taking Spanish lessons from a Russian born woman whose second language was Polish, her third language was English, and her fourth language is Spanish. Now she's actually teaching Spanish at the Wilson Park Senior center for five dollars a semester.

"Isn’t Wilson Park wonderful?” I asked.

Then I said something about my wife signing up for the upcoming woodworking class.

“Oh, I just took that last fall. My instructor hollered at everyone but me. Apparently I know what I'm doing.”

~~~~~

If it actually hits fifty degrees this balmy weekend of December, Mark is going to put his canoe into the Mukwonago river for a little bit. He's never gone canoeing in December. He's done nine other months and this would be the 10th month so he's kind of looking forward to it.

~~~~~

And Jeffrey had been in architecture since college. He started his own shop about five years ago and is managed to keep himself successfully busy. A lot of people he knows started their own architectural firms after that after the crash because they were pretty much otherwise unemployed. We talked about condos, high-rises, and the Milwaukee sky line.

~~~~~

I so enjoy the people I meet. The old expression is variety is the spice of life. While that may be true variety is also the meat and potatoes, the rice and beans, the peanut butter and jelly,  and the ham and cheese. 

Variety is all there is.