Tuesday Memories

I went to the Consistory again today to work in the office. I mean, it is not really work because all I do is answer the phone and take messages and call Shane when there is a question I can't answer. Yesterday Shane's wife had to go to the hospital to have her appendix out. It was late in the afternoon so it wasn't really a problem.

Today he was gone most of the day except for one appointment that he had to cover. He brought his son with him so that was neat. It isn't as much fun when he isn't there because I like talking to him and I enjoy our visits in between his work. But I still enjoyed myself. Having someplace to go and being around people is good for me. And my blood sugar was lower so perhaps I should look for something to do. But then again I enjoy the freedom of not having to be someplace. He will be in later tomorrow also and we have meetings in the evenings so Jon is going to take care of the boys" and let them out. The last couple of days they have been by themselves all day. And they have been good.

I gave a Brother from Texas a tour of the Temple today. He was in town for a meeting and wanted to see the building. I was very pleased to show him around. Our fraternity is worldwide and any Brother who comes to town is entitled to a tour. At least in my opinion.

I also took some work from home with me and I take my computer with me so I can keep up with the (many) blogs I read. I also stay up on the e-mails. I got 34 e-mails today and sent out 24. (That includes a few from this evening.)

One thing that came up today was the Ancient and Honorable Order of the Turtles. It reminded me of the time when Mother and I were very active in the Order of the Eastern Star and always took a full car to meetings all over the state. We had a lot of fun. One of the ladies who traveled with us was Florence Robinson. She was the long-time Secretary of our Chapter and I grew to like her a lot over the years. Now if you know anything about the Order of the Turtles there are some questions which you ask to initiate the candidate. The answers are not vulgar but on first listen you might think they were. You can check them out on the article linked above.
The story I want to tell refers to the password. We always told the initiate that it was assumed that each prospective turtle owned a Jackass (or a donkey). On this was based the pass. When asked "Are you a Turtle?" You must reply "You bet your sweet ass I am." Failure to answer because of embarrassment meant that you owed the questioner a drink of his or her choice.

Well Sister Florence always answered "You bet your sweet as I am." We let her get away with it. She was 80 years old after all. I was in my 40's Mother was 30 years older and we hung out with a multi-generational group. I am still doing that. I have friends in the fraternity who are in their twenties, thirties, forties and on up. Good friends. And they put up with me in my 60's. We have fun but I am not sure that we have the same kind of fun we used to have.

We used to have little side orders like the Order of the Moo and the Birdwatcher's Society and Tom Dean's Order of P.......... Hell, I can't spell it but he is the Chief (or is it Supreme) Boomer. Tom when you read this you are going to have to put it in the comments. We had FUN. And we still did our business at meetings and tried to advance the orders. But it was fun. Someone last year said to me "If it is not fun, why do it?" I took that advice to heart and I stopped doing a couple of things that were no longer fun. Now I am having fun again. I am having fun this week in the office at the Scottish Rite. I am enjoying a project that Craig and I are working on that I can't tell about yet (but I will eventually) and I guess that when I think about it I had a lot of fun as a teacher. Now I am having fun as a retired teacher and a Mason. Life is good. Thanks for stopping by. ARTYAL. Hugs, j-bear