And Good Riddance!

One of the nice things about retirement(or, okay, pre-retirement if you wanna get technical, but bottom line--no pun intended--my ass ain't there anymore!)is that for the most part you don't have to deal with people you don't want to deal with. 

In the world of work, along with the handful of helpful co-working folks who help you get through the mess(and you them), you have many relationships in which you're forced to be nice(or at least civil)to people you can't stand or at least would happily ignore. 

 This is, granted, a necessary skill, and has gotten my sometimes beleaguered ass through about 25 years of dayjob. It's just nice, at this point in life(albeit the Autumn of said life!) to not have to go through those duplicities. 

At the time, you just do what you gotta do, which often means holding your tongue(under lock and key if you have to!). One co-worker deliberately avoided gatherings where alcohol was served, due to its tongue-loosening properties and the increasing likelihood of his telling someone what a horse's patootie he thought they really were.

And as with any company or agency, we had our share of 'em. I miss the nutrients in my working life, like the fellow who eschewed office parties, but I sure don't miss the toxins. Not having to deal with them is a liberty I guess I didn't appreciate until now. I suppose there are some things that you just carry around with you for so long that it just takes awhile to realize your load has lightened. 

Fancy that.