Rep Retirement Lodge #173: (Insert Title)

[gmann]

One last recap of my last few days. I am guessing that many don't much care to read about it, but I think some do, and it seems therapeutic for me to post about it, so that is what I'm going to do.

The last 2 days we really could see what it means to live in a small community. Everyone knows everyone, and everyone cares about everyone. Amid the sadness, this part was very refreshing, and even uplifting. In a town of 600 people, 2500 people showed up to the visitation, the line to greet my aunt and the rest of Derek's immediate family was between 3 and 4 hours long, but no one complained about it. When I thanked people for waiting so long the only response I got was "we couldn't miss it, and the wait is well worth it". I have never seen so many tears from hardened, grown men...farmers, blue collar workers, guys you just never expect to see cry. Everyone from the group Derek traveled to Canada for fly in fishing trips showed up, mostly 50-60 year old guys that wanted to bring this 20 year old kid along, not a dry eye among them. Our entire hunting party was there. A group of 20 guys traveled from Madison, where Derek took farm management courses, to be there. Local radio stations from Faribault and from Red Wing were there, and they reported on it during the next morning's news. Derek was a high school basketball star, he led his team to state 2 years. When they read his obituary on the radio, it was the play-by-play guy doing the reading, and he started it with "and from Goodhue, Number 10, Derek...." He also wrote a poem about it, posted to the radio's website. During the 7 hours that the family was greeting people at the visitation, my cousin, Derek's big sister, and her husband held their new baby boy, born the morning that Derek died, the entire time, trying to give people a little bit of happiness among all of the sadness. Earlier in the day, they had asked Derek's best friend, who was with him when he died, and felt responsible for the accident, even though he was in no way responsible, to stand in for Derek, and by the baby's godfather. That was a happy moment. My aunt was already told that the organs that Derek donated helped 30 people, 30, that is incredible. She will be getting more details on that after 1 year.

At the funeral, 500 people showed up, including every single person from Derek's graduating class. The church only held 300, so people were in a side room, and standing outside the church in the rain. The funeral procession was easily 100 cars long. Derek was buried right next to our Grandma, and right next to where, someday, my Grandpa will be buried, which is fitting because Derek was Grandpa's favorite. They were inseparable.

Me and my family are just so happy that we were able to give Derek the tribute that he deserved. We're proud that he was able to make such a huge impact in his 21 years to create such a huge outpouring of support. Even though I don't live down there anymore, it is very comforting to know that there is community of so many people, that are there when we need them.

Thank you Lodgers, for being my audience while I dealt with the last few days.

Incredible. Amazing poem to boot.

 

[gmann]

oh, because he's not gonna be a goof so you don't care?!?!!?!?

Sweet!

If we were at a bar I would buy the next few rounds.

 

[leswp1]

Re: Rep Retirement Lodge #173: (Insert Title)

The minister that married my wife and I told us which passages he was going to read and talk about for the ceremony the night prior during the rehersal. Then, during the ceremony, he goes off on a different tangent using our wedding as his platform. Was none too pleased with him, but shy of creating a stink when handing him his check after the ceremony (with family and friends waiting just outside) there was nothing we could do.

My FIL threatened to tell the Priest off. It was... uncomfortable..

That is simply amazing. Thank you for feeling you could share this with us.

This

It's noon(ish) here in NC, time to get get my sweet tea fix!



The pleasure is all on this side of the screen.

That is a really heartwarming story. All those people helped because he donated is amazing!

 

[leswp1]

Re: Rep Retirement Lodge #173: (Insert Title)

Scarlet has Tuesdays. I have Thursdays. They are not good days.

 

[The Rube]

Re: Rep Retirement Lodge #173: (Insert Title)

bbdl: that was a good read. Got a little dusty in my apt.

Rough week is almost over. Got news that we are going to have a new hire start next week, and up to 3 more positions filled in the next few weeks. Big Boss is really pushing for little to no OT this year, which is good. He heard about last year, with all the 8-9pm endtimes, and knows that affects our personal lives, and vowed to do anything he could to help. So far, he has been doing well with that.

 

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: Rep Retirement Lodge #173: (Insert Title)

Big Boss is really pushing for little to no OT this year, which is good. He heard about last year, with all the 8-9pm endtimes, and knows that affects our personal lives...

...and the company bottom line.

 

[The Rube]

Re: Rep Retirement Lodge #173: (Insert Title)

...and the company bottom line.

Well.....the old Big Boss claimed he was trying to do the same thing, and it actually got worse. I don't know what exactly changed, and for the most part the old Big Boss was a great boss, but it really seems different this time around.

Edit: IIRC, we also offer health insurance to the part-timers, so OT is probably costing less than covering insurance.

 

[state of hockey]

Re: Rep Retirement Lodge #173: (Insert Title)

Nevermind on the insurance outfit thinking my car was worth a grand more than I thought, they think it's worth $1,900 more. Score.

The truck driver indeed stopped at some point down the road and called it in. He did have a little damage to the passenger right side. Good job Mazda, you took the SOB down with you.

 

[Ralph Baer]

Re: Rep Retirement Lodge #173: (Insert Title)

Yawn!

 

[MarkEagleUSA]

Re: Rep Retirement Lodge #173: (Insert Title)

Good morning to tLodge!

 

[leswp1]

Re: Rep Retirement Lodge #173: (Insert Title)

Nevermind on the insurance outfit thinking my car was worth a grand more than I thought, they think it's worth $1,900 more. Score.

The truck driver indeed stopped at some point down the road and called it in. He did have a little damage to the passenger right side. Good job Mazda, you took the SOB down with you.

sweet indeed.

 

[Lady wore Black]

Re: Rep Retirement Lodge #173: (Insert Title)

Good Morning, Lodge!

 

[goldy_331]

Re: Rep Retirement Lodge #173: (Insert Title)

Good Morning Lodge.

ETA: On Brent's job - you have to run up truly ridiculous amounts of OT to make it cheaper to hire more people. All the other costs of employing people usually make it cheaper to just pay time and a half to your existing staff. Also much easier to manage staffing to just have people work more hours than schedule additional people. Hell on the staff but usually cheaper.

 

[bigblue_dl]

Re: Rep Retirement Lodge #173: (Insert Title)

Nevermind on the insurance outfit thinking my car was worth a grand more than I thought, they think it's worth $1,900 more. Score.

The truck driver indeed stopped at some point down the road and called it in. He did have a little damage to the passenger right side. Good job Mazda, you took the SOB down with you.

Well that is a nice little surprise! Should help with getting a new ride!

 

[bigblue_dl]

Re: Rep Retirement Lodge #173: (Insert Title)

Good Morning Lodge.

ETA: On Brent's job - you have to run up truly ridiculous amounts of OT to make it cheaper to hire more people. All the other costs of employing people usually make it cheaper to just pay time and a half to your existing staff. Also much easier to manage staffing to just have people work more hours than schedule additional people. Hell on the staff but usually cheaper.

Yeah, it just depends on how much the company values their worker's work/life balance.

 

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: Rep Retirement Lodge #173: (Insert Title)

Edit: IIRC, we also offer health insurance to the part-timers, so OT is probably costing less than covering insurance.

That's impressive.

 

[Scarlet]

Re: Rep Retirement Lodge #173: (Insert Title)

I hate the fact that I can't get rid of the mobile view of this site on my home laptop as I just noticed here at work that I passed the 25K post mark. Darn. I was going to do something for it. Now it will have to wait till 30K. Maybe I will have figured out how to get it back to the regular version of the site by then.

I'm so glad my niece is taking my Dad's Red Sox tickets for tonight. I am exhausted. It will be good to go home and not do anything for a change.

 

[bigblue_dl]

Re: Rep Retirement Lodge #173: (Insert Title)

I am going to be taking some unpaid leave this year, to go down to the farm to help out my dad. Discussed it with my supervisor, and given the situation, he has no problem with it. I'm looking forward to getting a little more involved in the day-to-day work, and spending some time with my dad and grandpa. Even though my grandpa has supposedly been retired for 15 years, he still gets out there, at the age of 74. Lots of decisions to be made regarding the future of the farm...

 

[mookie1995]

S'upp y'all

Sweet!

If we were at a bar I would buy the next few rounds.

 

[Twitch Boy]

Re: Rep Retirement Lodge #173: (Insert Title)

Morning Lodge.

I have no idea how I remembered the song Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in my Hand by the Primitive Radio Gods last night at bar trivia. What is it with me and mid-90's soft/alt rock?