Now, if you were ever........on the road and forgot your wine bottle opener......one's imagination certainly would come into play. I remember watching the old movies, where this would happen and the hero.......or villain........would always .........just whack the bottle across the edge of a table or wall and WALLAH! the top came off clean as a whistle. The one time I tried that, Margot thought I had tied dyed my shirt and pants. Worst part, I wasted a good bottle of TWO BUCK CHUCK.
LOOKING through my archives of things everyone should know, I found something that could help those in need, when trying to open a bottle of wine. Now it is in French...... but no problem........just watch the motions:
http://www.wimp.com/wineshoe
Now, you may not always have a shoe along.......but let's hope so. Also, bring a shoe HORN.....with you, to celebrate your success. At this point, the French would probably come up with:
préférez-vous rouge ou blanc avec vous des frites françaises aromatisées crêpes?
For those of you that do not speak other languages, have fun with this one.
Someone recently asked me if I was enjoying retirement. I really did not know how to answer their question! At the time (1994) it seemed like the thing to do. I had completed my 38th year with SAS, I was feeling a little tired, I had the financial resources and I wanted to play more golf. I had already turned down 5 previously offered packages and could almost feel the anticipation in the Personnal Directors voice when the deal was offered. OH, it was not offered to just me but to about ...........say........100 or so other employees and you could almost see the handwriting on the wall that not many more packages were about to come through. Up to this time, it seemed the company made some kind of offer every 4-5 years. This one, happened to clinch this deal. There was a message from up above...........NO ! NOT FROM GOD! but from our head office in New York. "Vito.........let me just be up front......there are not going to be anymore deals in the near future. Now, I'm taking this one and I urge you to really consider this package." Well.......the way it turned out -------He was right------------this was a deal made in Heaven and one ..........A PERSON COULD NOT REFUSE....... OH, glory be! what to do?? Needless to say............I looked at the offer.........talked it over with Margot...perhaps a hundred times.....and decided that even though, I was still a young 59, let's do it. It was made officially in April 1994 but I was extended with a separate contract until December 1994. Those extra nine months were simply heaven on earth. I had my package, I could almost come and go as I pleased, although I still stayed my usual 9-10 hours a day, I felt no pressures to check myself and make sure that every decision was back up with fact.......in other words, COVER my ass ........and I could go out a play golf anytime I wanted. As a matter of fact........I even took my two days off, per week and did not carry my cell phone with me........WOW!!!! MY kind of job. Only problem is once December arrived and I no longer had to get up at 6AM, shave, shower, get into my pilots uniform (even though my dad use to say I looked like a bus driver)...........and..........by the way, I wasn't a pilot but wore a uniform that looked like one, with stripes and braids and medals, no.......not really I'm making that up, NO MEDALS....head out to work, things begin to change.
(to be continued)
