The NFC B-Day Chat Thread

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Blooie said:
Happy birthday, HC!

It can’t rain any more, DMC - there can’t possibly be that much more rain left up there in the sky!

Beautiful day here in lovely downtown Wherever-the-heck-we-are-todayville. Weird thing happened at the hotel this morning. Still shaking my head...

Ken left about 7:30. Today is the annual outdoor meeting and Masonic gathering at the Kennedy Ranch, up in the mountains outside of Wheatland. One of the Brothers picked him up so I’d have the car. Anyway, I went down to have a bite to eat after he left and as I’m sitting there an older woman came over and said, “Excuse me, didn’t I see you at the Capitol celebrations?” Um, could be. I was there. I nodded ..... “I thought so. I was standing right behind you. Wasn’t that Mason part impressive? May I join you? My husband is getting a noise in our car checked before we leave for Yellowstone.” So I said she certainly could join me, and we chatted about the Park for a bit, since it was their first trip there. Then she started talking about how much she enjoyed all of the festivities at the Capitol and how glad she was that they’d been able to time their visit to see it. Turns out her hubby was a Mason in California but he had dropped out years ago. “Kids, jobs, and traveling made it hard for him to go to things.”

It was a nice chat until.....”That fat little guy looked ridiculous in that black top hat. Why in the world would a man be that pompous and wear a top hat just to get attention at a special event like that? He looked like the character from the Monopoly game.” And she giggled. I took a deep breath and explained to her that he was the Grand Master of Masons in Wyoming and that top hat is required at all Masonic functions if he’s presiding, which he was doing at the time. I told her that by Masonic Code, he is the only Mason present at functions who is allowed to have his head covered as a symbol of his authority. And all Masons who are Masters of their home Lodges wear a top hat during their meetings UNLESS the Grand Master of the State is conducting the meeting.

“No, there was a man in the lineup who was wearing a cowboy hat,” she reminded me. I said, “Yes, that was our Grand Historian, Gary, and he was given special permission by the Grand Master to wear a hat because he recently had 6 skin cancer lesions removed from his head and neck and has to avoid sun exposure.” She just couldn’t drop it. “Still, he was so short and dumpy, didn’t you think? Just not a dignified look.”

Well, I crumpled up my napkin and stuffed it into the remains of my French toast - instead of doing it to her judgmental head - and as calmly as I could I said, “That short, dumpy, pompous fat little man has put 30,000 miles on between three cars in the last year. He lives, eats, and breathes Masonry and living by the highest standards of the Craft. I guess what you see as undignified I see as a hard working, dedicated man who did a superb job representing the Masons of Wyoming. And it took me 52 years to put all that weight on him.” I left her holding a piece of bacon halfway between her plate and her vicious mouth. Can people really be that stupid and thoughtless and mean? I guess so.

Anyway, while my pompous, attention-seeking, undignified fat little Monopoly man is up in the mountains today with people who do respect and like him, I’m going to lock myself away in my hotel room and work on my gift bags for the Ladies’ Luncheon. Hope there’s nothing seriously wrong with their car so they can hit the road today. And I hope they try to pose for selfies with a top-hat-wearing grizzly bear. So there!
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B, some people just don't know when to shut up. Your encounter reminded me of something that happened many years ago when I worked for the insurance company.

There were several of us chatting in the break room when a new employee, started talking about how glad she was to be out of her old job working for a really horrible office manager at a local hospital. According to Ginger the new employee, the worst part of working for the horrible, terrible, no-good manager was that person was also called "Ginger". New employee Ginger said that made no sense because the office manager "Ginger" didn't even have the red hair that she did. (which was obviously dyed btw).

After listening to her rant about the stupidity of someone sharing her name for no apparent reason, I told her the office manager got her nickname when she was a child being raised by her grandmother. As a little girl, ginger snaps were a favorite treat that grandma made for her and that's where the nickname came from and stuck.

New employee Ginger told me I must be making that up, there's no way I could ever know something like that. I just smiled and said, "It's a true story. That horrible office manager with the nickname Ginger is my sister in law."

While she sputtered and turned red, the rest of the people at the table were laughing hysterically. For some reason, the new employee never sat with us at break time again. Go figure.
 

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