By Trent Rosser

I want to tell a story real quick. I once had a roommate named Joe. I didn't know much about him and really didn't care, as long as he paid his share of the bills and kept buying the beer. We used to come home from work and proceed to tie one on. We were constantly drinking. I at the time also had a beautiful fiance named Jill. Jill worked as a nurse's aid and was studying to become a nurse. During summer break, she moved in with us. One night after heavy drinking, Joe slipped and fell into our glass coffee table. Shards of broken glass was everywhere. Joe actually cut his eye on a piece of glass when he fell. Luckily Jill knew exactly what to do. With cotton and swabs she was able to patch him up.

For the next couple of days I made fun of him for looking like a homeless pirate. Joe was off work to recover and Jill was there to take care of him. They apparently became close, and I should have seen it coming. I came home to the house being cleared out and a "Dear John" letter explaining that they have actually fallen in love and decided to move away together. The moral of the story is that unexpected things can and will happen. My moral of the story is this: I'd have been married a long time ago, had it not been for cotton eyed Joe.

On a serious note, where have I been? I have not run off like cotton eyed Joe. Believe it or not, I have not left at all. I have been here this entire time. An unexpected twist of fate had me postpone my "Ramblings" for a while. I have always tried to write a "Feel Good" story to start the weekend with, but lately it has been a little rough. Last year I came out of semi-retirement, I was ready to pen to paper and go full speed. Then Covid hit us. Everything was locked down and I could not find a lot of humor in the world. I was able to work throughout the entire time. After all, I was considered to be an "essential" worker. A few months ago, things started to look up. The government opened everything back up. Then it happened. The day that I lost it all.

They let go of my foreman at work and brought in a temporary person to run the shop. Everyone was on pins and needles. He started to hire his family and friends while demoting a mechanic. I wasn't worried, after all, I do my job and get along with most everyone there. Then more circumstances came into play. A salesman stabbed me in the back. He wanted all the sales and not most of it. He became greedy. Sure enough, my replacement is a good friend of the salesman.

This devastated me. I still have good friends from that job, I was even offered a letter of recommendation from the operations manager, who I do consider a friend. I slipped into a small depression for a couple of days, then panic mode struck me. “How am I going to support my family? I have bills to pay!”

Luckily, in my line of work, most everyone knows each other, and most had heard what had happened and were anxious to have me working for them. Within a week I had three job offers, and never filled out a single application. The pay on the other hand is nowhere near what I was getting. So needless to say, we have been struggling. So again, it has been hard to find humor to write about.

It hasn't all been bad, one of the highlights of this time is a book I received. The book is called When Outlaws Wore Badges by Melody Groves. She used a part of one of my articles in her book. I was very proud of myself. It helped to keep my chin up. Which brings me to this conclusion. I have said it before, and I will say it again. My little saying that I have is "GET BACK UP!"

Life will knock you down. It will kick you when you are down and try to keep you there. No matter what, GET BACK UP. It never matters how many times you do get knocked down, it matters how many times you get back up. So, I will practice what I preach and I will GET BACK UP!

And hopefully, there will be many more "Rosser's Ramblings" in the very near future!