It's May!!!

Now that it is May, I decided to dedicate a journal entry to Tom's upcoming retirement! First I will show you our house and part of the yard he will be mowing when I tell you he is out on the lawnmower.

Now you need to see his tractor so you can picture him when I tell you he is mowing the "Back 40", also known as the "softball field" or the "soccer field".

Much of his time will be spent in his garden. I took this picture on May 1. Tommy is surprising me by truly enjoying his time working here. He had a smaller plot last year and all of us he will be feeding are very glad he has expanded

Here he is in his retirement present from me! I only hope he will slow down and use it! He has worked hard all his life and if anyone deserves some hammock time it is Tommy Johnson!

His official retirement date is June 1 but Memorial weekend is his weekend to be 100% off and, if he goes in at all on Memorial Monday, it will only be for an hour! He will only carry the emergency phone one more weekend!

It seems like no time at all since we were counting the days until he graduated from vet school. It has been the perfect career for him. He was meant to be a veterinarian! I should have known that even when we were first dating. I always said that I came third, after basketball and dogs! He did well in his first two careers - coach and U.S. Air Force officer - but I am so happy we took that huge gamble back in January 1974! He gave up a regular commision in the Air Force as a captain on flying status to try to get into veterinary school. There were times when we questioned our sanity - like the semester at the University of Arkansas when he was trying to pass Organic Chemistry with a high enough grade to even be considered for acceptance into LSU or Oklahoma State. Those were the two vet schools that had contracts with Arkansas at that time. OSU took three Arkansans and LSU took six; NINE students from Arkansas were allowed into vet school that year out of the 90+ applicants who all shared the same dream! He'll be the first to tell you that he didn't take college that seriously the first time around. As long as Coach Winningham wasn't mad at him, he was happy. That meant he didn't have the prettiest GPA to offer interviewers, even though he made almost (remember Organic) all A's when he went back to get his prerequisites. Bless the men on LSU's admissions board who knew that they were meeting a man who was serious about joining their profession and who had given up a good career to do so. (He repaid their kindness by saving them from a lawsuit! A frustrated applicant decided he was being discriminated against because of his age. The school's lawyers took one look at Tommy's class in which he would be graduating as a 35 year old and another student graduating at 36 and said, "Let them sue!!!")

I have gotten pretty emotional as I wrote this. I guess you all know that I think I have a wonderful man for a husband!