Bye-Bye Job!

In all of the hullabaloo surrounding Leah's triumphant entry into our lives, my departure from work came and went. Last Wednesday was my final day doing work for our lovely Commonwealth. This morning I am heading to VDOT to meet the drivers from Fairfax who will take the Black Beast back north and then I am officially officially done. Hard to believe that a job I wanted so much is now something I am gladly saying goodbye to!

In the past 3 years since I got The Black Beast in a vehicle trade, I've done nearly60,000 miles in the Commonwealth's service. I have no idea how many clients I saw in the past 4+ years, but I've covered Loudon, Fauqier, Culpeper, Orange, Prince William, Stafford, and Spotsylvania counties. I've encountered some of the bravest people I've ever met, and I've seen people deal with blindness in so many different ways you can't begin to imagine it. I've seen people as young as 14 who couldn't brush their teeth by themselves when I showed up and I've seen people well into their 90s who were in nursing homes and, well, couldn't brush their teeth themselves ;-) I've seen the fabulously wealthy and the dirt poor in my tenure. People who hated the Yankee coming into their house and people who would have welcomed Stalin if it meant they'd get a little help seeing better. They all touched me, from the ones I prayed I'd never see again to those I prayed wouldn't ask for their cases to be closed (somehow it always worked out exactly the opposite).

And now it's over. And I'm HAPPY. Next job will not be a road job. I'll worry about it in 5 years :-)