| 7:09p |
Birthday #5 Columbus, Georgia
It’s Saturday, and it was really hard to get up this morning., I always sleep in a cold room with the window open right over my head, but the problem is getting out of my cacoon of blankets into the chilly room .Anyhow I made it to work exactly on time—10 o’clock—and when I walked into the winery my mouth flew open. There, waiting for me, was my good Buddhist priest friend and his lovely 21 year old daughter. He was taking her up to the geyser area to see the land he has bought for his meditation building, and they had kindly stopped to say hello. I was so thrilled that I rushed over to throw my arms around each of them. In so doing, my handbag caught a bottle of Walnut oil which was on the very corner of a shelf and it smashed to the ground spilling the slippery oil over a large area of the floor. Yikes!! I didn’t let it ruin my very short visit with them, however, and after they left Damme, my boss, Michael our cute actor part-timer, and I managed to sweep up the glass, soak up part of the oil and finally mop the area down. The danger, of course, was making sure no visitor slipped and fell. A month or so ago a lady missed the last step on the way down to our fountain and broke her hand. We had the fire department rescue workers, ambulance and Simi personnel involved. I understand Simi paid all the medical expenses and sent flowers. The very next day a metal banister was installed from top to bottom of those steps!
Fortunately I was not charged for the lost oil, and Damme even tried to say it was his fault for putting the bottle too near the edge of the shelf. Four years ago when I first started working for Simi and was upset about having to go to court to declare bankruptsy, I dropped a whole case of red wine. Six bottles broke and spread wine all over the rug in the store room. Thank goodness it WAS the store room and not out in the Tasting room. That time too, they did not charge me. I don’t make as much money as some other wineries, but Simi personnel have become like a family to me, and I love them all dearly.
As long as I’m here at the computer, I will continue writing about some of my birthdays. As I said before, they are all mixed up chronologically. This time I’ll go back to Columbus, Georgia when Frank, my husband, was stationed at Ft. Benning.. It was our first Christmas together, and I wanted it to be a lovely one. We purchased a big tree and after he put the lights on, I covered it with beautiful balls and angels, and lots of other things. It looked so pretty. Next day I was in another part of the house ironing when I heard a sickening crash. Ohhhhhhh!! Our tree and all its trimmings were spattered on the floor. I was heartbroken and even after the tree was replaced upright and decorated with whatever had survived the accident, it just wasn’t the same. Frank tried to make it up to me by giving me a lot of little presents two days later on my birthday. I’m trying to remember which birthday that was, but it’s difficult.. I think I was in my mid thirties. |