“Mondays are the potholes in the road of life.”
Easter Sunday was perfect. The weather was warm and sunny, and I got to sit on the deck for a while and drink coffee and read the papers. Dinner was sumptuous, and our table was at a window overlooking the ocean. We stayed for the longest time eating and talking and toasting the day, the dinner and each other. Last night the Red Sox were down 5-1 in the fifth, but my boys of summer rallied that inning and the next three to beat the Yankees 7-5. It was a heart pounding opening day. I must slept with a smile on my face.
I used to dread Mondays. When the alarm sounded at 5:15, I’d bemoan my fate as I dragged myself out of bed. It was always dark. The house was cold. No lights were lit anywhere. The rest of the world was still cozy and asleep. Now, Mondays are like any other day. Take today for instance. This morning I woke to the sounds of birds coming through the open window in my bedroom. The sun was shining. I could see blue sky through the tree tops as I was lying in bed trying to decide if I was ready to get up yet. Gracie was asleep beside me. When I decided it was time, I came downstairs, made some coffee and went out on the deck. Gracie was romping in the yard. I stayed a while and admired the morning.
Hating Mondays was never a kid thing. Back then, I took days and events as they came. I went to bed when I was told and got up when my mother woke me. Life was five days of school and two days of fun. If I didn’t feel good, I stayed home; it was no big deal. Besides, summer was the reward for a year of school. Even in college I didn’t worry about Mondays. I had a late class and summers I worked from noon to nine at the post office. I got to play at night and sleep in the next morning.
My first adult job was in the Peace Corps. Roosters crowing in the backyard were my alarm clock. I drank my coffee sitting on the front steps and greeting small children as they went by on their way to school. I could see a baobab tree and rows of millet. I watched women carrying stuff on their heads as they went to market. Every day was precious, including every Monday.
I figure it was working for a living that finally made Mondays odious. I had to work five days just to get two days off and never thought that fair. An alarm became a necessary intrusion. Mondays followed a weekend of going to bed late and getting up when I wanted, of doing nothing if that was my choice so I quickly learned to dread them. I didn’t know a single person who liked Mondays.
I retired on my birthday which was a Tuesday. On the Monday before, the alarm went off, and I sprang out of bed. I knew it was the last odious Monday.
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
April 5, 2010 at 12:26 pm
Mondays has never been bad for me, it is Tuesdays that are awful. On monday You still have a bit of weekend left in “the system” so to speak. Wednesdays are in the middle of the week, thursdays just passes and Fridays are prakticly weekend. But Tuesdays!! Nothing but pain 🙂 🙂
It´s been an awful day today. First it snowed all morning, then my cold decided to knock me down totally. I was freezing like never before and sneezing too when I didn´t cough. Every inch of my body has been in pain and I still can´t watch tv! Well, I´m feeling much better now and I hope this was the last fight the cold managed 🙂
Did You see the link I posted in yesterdays comments? The site doesn´t say much useful in swedish and less in english I´m afraid 🙂
Have a great day now!
Christer.
April 5, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Christer,
I’m sorry that cold still has you in its grip. You need a warm sun to bake all those germs out of you.
My nephew lives in the Rocky Mountains in a really small town. Yesterday it was 13° and snowing!
I went right to that link and read all about the baseball team and the start of baseball in Sweden-the page was translated by Google so I read it all.
Feel better!!
April 6, 2010 at 11:30 am
Christer,
I forgot to ask, did all the witches make it back to Brocken Mountain for Easter this year? I hope none stopped over at your house.
April 5, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Hi, Kat
My 17 year old niece and I were having a conversation yesterday that relates to Monday blah. She said she wanted to go swimming but then she sort of didn’t want to. She dislikes Sunday because It’s the end of the weekend. She wants to do something because it’s Sunday but wants to do nothing because it’s the last chance she has to do nothing until next weekend. It made me think of Douglas Adams’ book The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul. Anyway, I agreed with her instead of rubbing it in by saying I was retired and didn’t have that problem anymore.
April 5, 2010 at 12:52 pm
Hi caryn,
I have on my sixth year of not caring which day of the week it is, but I can still commiserate with the Monday morning sufferers. Thirty five years of working and dreading Mondays isn’t easy to forget!
At 17, I still didn’t dread the end of the weekend. School was tons better than working.
April 5, 2010 at 4:15 pm
I don’t dread Mondays because the library is closed on Mondays. I don’t even dread Tuesdays, though they start my work week. I don’t know why. They just don’t seem as evil. One week I do 40 hours Tues-Fri and the next I do 40 hours Tues-Sat. So every other week is a long weekend. It’s a nice set-up and breaks up the routine.
Since the boomers will have long sucked up Social Security, Medicare and the state retirement fund when I am of retirement age I do not even picture myself retired. At least I have a job I like. Some day I’ll be saying, “I remember my cousin Kat. She was retired.” And all the youngsters will ask what that means with a sound of wonder and awe in their voices.
Erin
April 5, 2010 at 6:25 pm
Erin,
I do not get social security and won’t when the time comes. I didn’t put in enough time. The money deducted from me stays in the system-it’s my gift!
April 6, 2010 at 11:47 am
I do qualify for full social security benefits, but underneath that statement it tells me that those benefits will not be there when I retire. So all of my social security I’ve paid, past and present will be a gift to those on it now and the upcoming boomers.
Likewise all the money I paid into Medicare.
And likewise all the money I’ve paid into retirement for state, school and town employees. It upsets me that I am still expected to pay into all of these things to support those currently using it knowing that it is all underfunded when it comes time for my generation to retire. I don’t see anyone from any party really doing anything to fix these issues. And since the boomers and their parents give them the most votes they are afraid to talk about changing any of it for fear of not getting re-elected.
I didn’t mean to get so political. You’ve earned your retirement. Just hoping someday my generation will be able to do the same.
April 6, 2010 at 11:56 am
Erin,
I know here in Massachusetts the teacher retirement system is private and unless you taught, you didn’t contribute. I guess New Hampshire is different. I’m sorry they make you pay for into the teachers’ retirement. That just isn’t fair.
I chose a profession which didn’t make use of the social security system, but it wasn’t on my mind or even a part of the decision when I went into teaching, but I was glad when I retired. I never begrudged the loss of the money I paid into social security-only 4 units short of getting it. I figured somebody could use it more than I could.
It took 35 professional years and four summers of work during college to get here. I was ready to retire!
April 6, 2010 at 8:49 pm
Kat, did you pay into Medicare?
A lot of our retired teachers didn’t do so and now have to work on their Social Security quarters in order to qualify.
April 6, 2010 at 8:52 pm
John,
I think so only because the teachers older than I have both Blue Cross and Medicare.
April 7, 2010 at 8:42 am
Kat,
I was part of the MA teacher retirement system for ten years: three as a teacher and seven as a public librarian. I was also part of the union for those ten years. When I came on board my mentor teacher was retiring that year. She was contributing 5% of her salary to retirement. She was retiring with 80% of her salary for life and full medical benefits. I was contributing 11% of my salary, would get 70% of my salary for life with no medical benefits.
My current system the director who retired before me retired with 80% of her salary for life and full medical. I will get 50% of my salary for life and no medical.
The problem is that each new generation of teachers/workers supports the one before them. This worked great in your generation as there were a lot of you. But my generation has a lot less people. We have to pay more of our salary into the system than the previous generation with less return. It’s not the fault of the retiring teachers. I don’t blame them. The system itself is flawed. And since it is set up like a Ponzi scheme, eventually it will collapse.
The federal judicial system has already ruled that companies are not held responsible to fulfill their pension obligations. I’m sure as state and teacher retirements start to run low it will be the same. The system is unsustainable. Many state and private retirement systems cannot meet the obligation to future retirees and are trying to come up with ways to fix it.
For example, any employee hired this year and after will have to pay twice as much into state retirement as I am right now. Many systems are doing this.
Erin
April 7, 2010 at 9:38 am
Erin,
I hoped you pulled your money from retirement and put it to good use in something which will make at least a small amount of money for you down the road.
I did not get full benefits and I pay more than my district does though I did get 80% of my salary, and I contributed more than the 5% but not much.
April 5, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Is that artwork copies of photos of you Kat? Nice new banner. I think you’re settling in to the new digs. Good for you. I have always hated Mondays but remember that in the Summer who cared what day it was? Then I got a job as a life guard and Mondays were a true delight having had to deal with a gazillion complaining parents all weekend. They were worst than their kids. !! Now I guess it doesn’t matter. I take everyday as it comes.
April 5, 2010 at 7:28 pm
Z&Me,
Not me, but I do love that artwork anyway. Morpfy did it for me. He had done some for the other site but the dimensions for this were difficult so i couldn’t fit in the other he did. Morpfy was nice enough to send three along-this was my favorite.
I always found adults worse than kids. I had more trouble with teachers than I did with any students.
April 6, 2010 at 8:00 am
Perhaps stranger is to be in that inbetween stage – knowing that the working days are coming to an end but not quite sure when that will be. The daily routine started at 18, with a 3 year interruption at the LSE, and at 55 going on 56…..
April 6, 2010 at 10:18 am
My Dear Hedley,
I knew I had three years until retirement but was keeping it way in the back of my head. Like you, I had been working since I was young, 17, starting summers. I didn’t want to imagine such a change in a life long routine. Then in a heartbeat it all changed. I was suddenly able to buy back my Peace Corps years and I had only 1 more year to work. All of a sudden I was both elated and panic stricken.
The panic dies quickly. The elated stays around every day!
April 6, 2010 at 4:16 pm
How’d I end up as “old folkie”?
April 6, 2010 at 4:42 pm
John,
I was wondering that myself. It seems that WordPress is choosing to typecast (oops, kidding, of course). Sometime and somewhere you must have used it as a log in, and it has stuck.
April 6, 2010 at 8:47 pm
Yeah, I’ve used it on other blogs…
It really does fit (especially the old part) so if I forget and it shows up again just consider it due to a flashback from my days “relaxing” on the canal bank in Panama.