November 12, 2021 – The Thirty-Ninth Official Friday Night BeerBlog

I detest being late. But what I detest even more is being ready to go, but then having to WAIT for someone else. And that other person doesn’t seem to have an internal clock. I wonder who I could be talking about. This happens so often that Mike and I aren’t late, our friends just call it arriving on McShane Time. Imagine my horror at being lumped into this family trait.

Always In The Knick Of Time

Mike has a talent of arriving just “in time”. Let’s say I would show up ten minutes early to catch a train. I would definitely want to make sure that I was there as they let people on. Picture me as I sit, staring at the door, freaking out that Mike won’t make it on time. They would be making announcements that the train is getting ready to close the doors. I’m sweating bullets hoping that he makes it on time. Just as I’ve resigned that he will miss the train, the doors start to close and Mike slides through. He is cool as a cucumber, looking at me like “WHAT?” and wondering why I’m freaking out.

Time To Trim Some Trees

This “time has no meaning” thing is a family trait. And I’ve heard this story so many times from Mike’s mother. Once, many years ago when they were still married, Tedi and Richard had plans to go to dinner with friends. When it was time to get ready, Richard looked up and saw a limb up that he felt needed to trimmed. Right now. Instead of waiting until a more appropriate time, he headed to the garage, got his climbing and trimming equipment and set off up the tree.

Their friends arrived and knowing Richard, they sat, watched, and had a drink. He eventually got out of the tree and they just made their dinner reservation. It is a story that is all too familiar to me as Mike and I have been married 25 years. We’ve even named this thing. In honor of Mike’s dad, putting off the inevitable in order to be somewhere on time is referred to as “trimming trees”. As in “Sorry we are late, Mike was trimming trees.” Or “Mike, stopping trimming trees, we’ve got to go.” Apropos, no?

It’s A Family Trait, Unfortunately

And it has been passed down to our daughter, Cate. She recently moved to Los Angeles and I had to travel there with her and Mike. We had to find an apartment and everything was on a really, REALLY tight time schedule. It was important to be on time to appointments and leasing agreements had to be submitted on time. I spent the better part of five days herding those two cats around Los Angeles. By the time we flew home with Cate safely tucked into the city, I was frazzled to my last nerve.

Of course it all worked out. Even when deadlines were missed and it seemed that all the deals would fall through, suddenly and without reason, things clicked right into place. Relieved, but a little pissed. How would she ever learn? Things just working out re-enforces this bad behavior. When are these two ever going to learn if they never miss the boat?

In the meantime, I’ve got to roll my eyes anytime someone announces that the McShanes have arrived on McShane time. I want it to be known that I am a McShane by marriage only. I hate trimming trees. Ten dollars says I had to wait at least a half an hour past the time we were supposed to record tonight’s podcast.

LLM

Link to the PODCAST Version with Mikey-Mike:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1822142/9540256