No Matter What

2026NoMatter                (Approx. 250 wds.)

No Matter What

     First, let me tell the reader that I’m an old guy, widowed, who lives in a retirement community, Sun City Roseville, just north of Sacramento.  Also, after retiring about thirty years ago I somehow became kind of a writer.  Some years ago I wrote a little story whose moral was that no matter what---old guy aches and pains, computer not working, bad news---the garbage must be taken out.

     I was reminded of this recently when my son, teen- age grandson and teenage granddaughter visited me.  It was a bittersweet event as of course I was happy to see them but realized this was probably for the last time.  It was a short visit and my son also wanted to get together with his two brothers and they wanted to do some shopping as apparently there were clothes and some other things here they couldn’t get in Ireland.

     But they stopped by every day to see me and it was good to see them seated across from me on my patio.  The day came all too soon when they paid their last visit and then were off, driving to San Francisco to get their flight back to Ireland.  When they were gone I looked into my underwear drawer and, horrors, saw that my last pair was gone.  This meant that I had to do a laundry right away, a major project for an oldster like me and the last thing I wanted to do right then.  But, like taking out the garbage, no matter what, the laundry must be done.

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