Saturday the 13th was the twelfth anniversary of my retirement. On the following Monday, as I did on that first retired Monday a dozen years ago, I went to the nearby Original Pancake House for breakfast. When my boss retired a few years ahead of me, he said he would know he was really retired when he was enjoying a leisurely breakfast on a Monday morning and that worked for me too. Although it isn’t always at this pancake house, I do try to reverify my status on the anniversary of the first day of that first job-free week.

The first time, twelve years ago, I had a brief conversation with a lady at a table near mine. Either her name was Virginia or she was from Virginia. (My memory sometimes thinks it’s retired, too.) Like me, she had a book as a dining companion, and, also like me, she was retired and well aware that the day was the start of a workweek for many. Virginia (or an unnamed lady from Virginia) had started enjoying workless Mondays some years before me. I haven’t seen her since but I hope she’s still doing that somewhere.

This year, I sat at a booth with no other customers nearby and split time between my eggs and my book. When the waitress came by to pick up an empty plate and offer another coffee refill, I expected her to leave a check. Instead, she told me someone had already paid for my meal. I asked her to repeat it and know I stared at her like an idiot.

“Some sort of pay-it-forward I guess,” she offered with a smile. I tried to return the smile but suspect I just continued to look dumb.

I reached the end of a chapter in my book and turned to my phone to check on the world before leaving. At the top of my Facebook feed was a post from Ray Wylie Hubbard who had an anniversary of his own on Saturday. He turned 75 that day. Ray Wylie hasn’t retired — musicians rarely do — and had performed in Austin on his birthday. His post was one of those RWH things that seem kind of rambling but really aren’t. He talked about his birthday and aging and such. In the middle, he tossed out a line that I know I’ll come back to on my own 75th in a few months and probably on some other anniversaries, too. “…but no matter how old I feel or think I am, I come back to being extremely grateful for my time here and try to show each day the respect it deserves while I is cause at some point in the future, well..I ain’t.”

He closed by suggesting folks “find something to be grateful for” if “you got some trouble in mind” or “darkness swooped down on you”. I have neither trouble nor darkness but it sure is easy to find something to be grateful for.