Quality Time

The thing I miss most about living in Nebraska with my boys in Arkansas and Oklahoma is that I don’t get to see them often enough. I’ve never been one of those people who act and believe like we’re going to live forever and we have plenty of time to do whatever we want to do. In fact, I’ve always lived my life opposite of that. I know that life is short, tenuous and unpredictable and we don’t ever know what tomorrow holds so if we have something we really want to do, we need to do it while we can. That lifestyle goes with being with my boys too. I know this life is a lot closer to the finish than to the beginning and I don’t want to waste a day of it. So I was thrilled a couple of weeks ago when my youngest son, Will, called me, told me his mother-in-law was visiting them for a week and after she left, he wanted to get together with me. I happily agreed to that and decided to meet in Lincoln during the 4th of July week.

I made reservations at Embassy Suites for two nights, Monday and Tuesday, and eagerly awaited those days to roll around. When they did, I was filled with an excitement that is more and more rare these days as I loaded the car and headed out. It’s a 7 hour drive for Will from Fayetteville, AR to Lincoln, NE so he left at 9 in the morning and I left at noon. There were no issues with the drive, in fact it was a perfect day to make the drive and I arrived at Embassy Suites precisely at check-in time which was my goal because I hate sitting around a hotel waiting for my room to be ready. I called Will to determine his whereabouts,, then unpacked , put things away and went downstairs to wait on his arrival. He had predicted on the phone he thought it would be close to five thirty because of the roads that were still flooded in Iowa and Missouri and he was right on the money, getting to the Embassy right at 5:30. After a warm greeting, we went to the manager’s happy hour and began catching up on each other’s lives.

Will’s big challenge currently is finding a job to replace the one he had at Bank of America which was a perfect job for him. He worked for them for ten years and the last eight years all the work was done at home. He loved sending his wife off to work and then working the rest of the day in his bathrobe, doing what his job required him to do. But as we all know, major corporations don’t do the same things forever and he was notified that all employees working from their homes would be reassigned to an office. He was going to be transferred to Dallas so he went down on a three day trial run and didn’t like it at all. He had to get up and clean up every morning, dress, make the drive in rush-hour traffic and work with an office full of people that he didn’t know. One of his options was to either take the transfer or accept a four month severance package which would give him ample time to find another job closer to where he lives now because he and Erica had just built a new home less than a year ago. So that’s the package he accepted and he seems fine with the decision, although he knows the package ends in September and he has to be employed somewhere else by then. But he’ s a smart guy and I’m sure he’ll find something that he likes doing and that suits he and his wife’s lifestyle.

Will worked at a company named Influent while attending the University of Nebraska and, amazingly, most of the guys he worked with there are all still friends. So he divided his time in Lincoln between me and them and that was okay with me because I know that for most people, there are periods in our lives where friends are just as important as family. One of Will’s best friends was one of five guys to win a million dollar prize in the lottery so his take was two hundred thousand dollars before taxes. Because of that, he picked up the tab whenever he was with us which was nice for me since I’m usually the one who pays for everything.

We enjoyed ourselves so much we decided to stay an extra day, not checking out until the morning of the 4th and both of us heading for home. I obviously beat Will but he arrived on time as well and when he called to tell me he made the trip okay, a friend of mine and I went to Sam and Suzy Muelller’s house for a homemade barbecue feast which was good as any I’ve ever had at a restaurant. After we finished eating, the younger folks at the party set up games to play and I chose that time to finally come home, alone but genuinely happy at the time I got to spend with my son and the special 4th of July festivities put on by Sam and Suzy.

It was a great four days and in the future, I’ll be hooking up with my boys much more often than I have in the past.