Working Overtime

Word to the wise. If your wife asks you to work overtime with her, don't. Well, you know, I say that with my tongue in my cheek. If Kath needs my help, you know I'll be there. It's just that Saturday went beyond, way beyond, what I expected. And it sure went beyond what she had planned.
When we talked about it she said, "We'll get there early, work a couple hours, and we'll be done by noon." We got there at seven and left about 4:30 in afternoon.
What she had in mind was the resorting of 420 feet of contract files that were arranged by contract number. They needed to be resorted by closeout date. The area that she had chosen to sort these contracts in, was probably 10 x 10. It got expanded almost immediately to about double that. Finally, I convinced her that we needed to use the hallways outside and around the file room. We needed to designate specific areas for specific years, and arrange the contracts within those years by months. Then we could go back and sort by date. After we had them sorted completely, we could then put them back on the shelves by closeout date.
When we were about halfway through, it was very apparent that there was no way this could be done over several days. It had to be done, as she planned, on a weekend day. It had to be done when no one else was around. When the department was empty of people acting as distractions. But that meant I was in it for the long-haul. And I emphasize the word "haul". The positive side is, I guess, that I got a lot of weight training.

As a side note, you'll all be happy to learn that the government is saving money by not air-conditioning their buildings on weekends. I can personally vouch for that. The positive from that - I lost weight. Improving my power to weight ratio. But it was, as they say, all water.

And to Kath, let me say, "I love you. Thank you for involving me in this. We haven't worked together like that for a long time - the downside of retirement - and it felt good.."
When you look at me with that openness in your face and say, "Thank you. I couldn't have done that without you." I say, "It's us Kath. We've been doing it together for a long time. We can't do it alone. Neither one of us. It'll always be you and I together."