Three PM, and I’m just finally sitting down to write! I’ve been working since I got out of bed. While I was driving from my brother’s place to this campground, Clarence Faehnstock Memorial State Park, in Putnam County, One of my drawers opened while I was in motion, and tore the slider track off the cabinet on one side. Ball bearings all over the place. I’d suspect I forgot to close it past the latch, except that this has happened before, so I put it on my Pre-Flight Checklist. Once it was an underwear drawer, and once a drawer full of pots and pans, but neither of them self-destructed like this one did.
I had a few phone calls I needed to make, and was doing that as I set out my tools, emptied the drawer, mixed some epoxy to repair the corners that had sprung apart. An incoming call from a New York phone number I didn’t recognize, and my pension system sent me down a rabbit hole. They have my birth certificate, but need proof of my current name. Somehow, they didn’t need this when I started the job? Clearly they knew who I was. Even more annoying, I’ve been there twice for consultations, and made it official in February that I would retire on July 1. Here I am now, in a campground with my important papers 100 miles away in my son’s attic. But my pension payments will be delayed—held up until I provide proof of my identity beyond my sixty-one-and-a-half year old birth certificate. Jaysus. They suggested if I could just bring my passport…
Yeah, well, I lost my passport in packing. Thought I knew where it was, but like the car keys, if they’re not in my hand…OK, resigned to go dig through my “important papers” boxes again, I finished fixing the drawer, kept meditating on the track system that it rides on, but just couldn’t make sense of it.
John Einstman fixing my drawers. All my relatives have pitched in on this rig!
Fortunately, Alice’s brother John is a cabinet maker, and he kindly agreed to come over to take a look at it. He had it fixed in a little while, and also moved some of the latches a tiny bit, to see if that would help them to stay shut while I travel. This launch really has taken a village of people to help me get on my way. I am so blessed, and so grateful.