Okay, it’s Sunday. Two days past when Advance closed up. I have been sore all weekend. I hate to admit it, but I’m just not used to that level of intense physical labor anymore. Weight lifting does not compensate for it. Strong enough? Certainly. Ready for seven straight hours a day of hard lifting? Not on your life.
But it’s done, it’s over. We dismantled the entire lab. This included two Kreonite paper processors, a Kreonite C-41 film processor, and E-6 film processor, some 14 enlargers, a mounting press, a slide mounting machine, stainless steel sinks of various sizes, counter space, tables, oversized trimmers….
I’m getting tired just listing it. Suffice it to say that we were a full service photographic lab, with all that entails. There was very very little we couldn’t do.
Yesterday (Saturday) I did virtually nothing. All day, I basically sat around. I read a little bit, Donna and I had a few conversations, we napped. Nothing of any major effort. Then we went out for a celebratory dinner. Donna left it up to me and I decided on Franco’s, down in Soulard. A friend of ours works there, Angela, and when I called she answered.
We sat on the patio in back, in near perfect weather, and indulged in a gourmet delight. Explaining what was the cause of our celebration to Angela, she threw in a few extras that really added. Especially at the end, when, after ordering our desert, she came out with another waiter in tow bearing two more desert plates on the house. Excellent. Well worth it.
We took Coffey for a walk when we got home, because just sitting around would have been inadvisable. We were stuffed. But not so stuffed as to be in pain.
Wonderful day.
Today, we went to our Dante group—of which Angela is also a part—and had a good session.
Donna and I are agreed, if even remotely possible, I am not going back to a day job. Not unless it is extraordinary. Certainly not in a lab.
So I have a summer of making things work ahead of me. I worked at Advance for 12 years, about 10 years longer than I’d intended. The last 4 have been hell.
I’m still recovering from a few muscle aches and bruises. Tomorrow is Monday. Tomorrow the new work begins. For now, I am contented to know that I am home.
