Yeah ... so I was out of work after leaving my government job with no current marketable skills for society. No income meant a serious problem which I band-aided by moving back in with my folks. It’s a good thing Ma loved me ‘cuz I’m sure Da would have dropped my ass at the curb within days of my arrival. I don’t think he ever spoke more than 5 words per occasion to me throughout my childhood, but he was oh so eloquent with his belt - not that I didn’t deserve it, but it still caused some serious pain when he was mad at me in my younger days. Heh, Ma had to haul him off me one time he was so mad - he gave me a real-life image of what “white with rage” looked like. Took a while for that beating to heal up I’ll tell ya.

Well, some months went by with no change in my job status, but I spent my time either hiking wilderness trails, working out or just hanging around the community yard. We lived in a townhouse that was part of an oval of townhouses with the center area a mix of parking by each door, a playground for the kids and some open areas for whatever other activities folks dreamed up.

Ma was a busybody, but in a nice way as she was always looking for someone to help out so she had lots of friends in the blocks around where we were living. She was close friends with another lady two doors down from us - let’s call her June. June’s man worked for the city and was gone all hours with his job. I never knew the man and never met him but he must have been a decent sort since he snagged June after all and she was a really nice lady. I didn’t find out until much later that June and her man were not really married and were living common-law with a toddler girl to help cement the relationship. She was even cuter than June and just another sweet kid.

I’d got a cheap badminton set for my birthday, forgot about it until one fine day during July. I thought since I’m not really using it, why not put it up in the courtyard and let everyone have some fun with it. That’s what I did and started it off with a challenge that afternoon for anyone to beat me at a game. Well, I spent over four hours out there in the July sun and never lost one game - even going 2 on me at times. What I did not know was that June was keeping an admiring eye on me while I played King of the Net. I’d been blessed with very quick reflexes and my years in gov’t work had given me a very well-conditioned body. Finally, it was suppertime, so I packed everything up and went in to eat with Ma. Da was seldom home for supper as his job kept him busy most of the time. He had a gov’t job too, but he was an office worker using computers most of the time.

A couple of days later, June is over visiting with Ma for a morning coffee and I came downstairs as I usually do, barely dressed to find June at the table talking to Ma. I got one of those mmmm mmmm looks from her as I arrived but I gave her no mind as she was not even on my radar at the time - after all, she was a married woman with a kid - shows you how little I knew about females! A few days later June comes over and she’s been talking to Ma about whether or not I had any handyman skills. Now I was no master craftsman but I knew a ball-pein from a claw hammer and a Roberston from a Phillips screwdriver and that the USA was too cheap to pay for the patent so they only had square drive instead of Robertson - more’s the pity for them. Ma allowed that I could do some easy stuff and so I got sent off to June’s place to do some minor repair for her. Since I had no job and June was paying, Ma did not give me a choice - either do it or move out. Sheesh, talk about tough love...