Thursday, March 12, 2009

Waste Not

Being retired to Florida is great except for the fact that my wife and I are busier than ever. We look forward each year to escaping for a few months to the little, laid-back town of Tawas, Michigan. One of the luxuries we enjoy is sleeping late every morning. We are definitely not the kind of people who pop out of bed bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. The clock radio goes off at 9 AM to an oldies music station sponsored by the local mortuary. Sometimes, instead of Benny Goodman and his orchestra, we wake to the sound of a deep voice reading the obituaries of all the folks in the county who met their maker the previous week. The first time it happened my wife nudged me and said, “I didn’t hear them call our names. I guess we have to get out of bed.” Now it’s our tradition to lie there until they’ve read all the names to make sure we’re not getting out of bed unnecessarily.