Jerry. Not my regular Jerry; this is a different Jerry.
The Jerry I'm talking about was a lawyer for the Ford Motor Company.
This Jerry just recently lost his wife and is moving out of his house in Westlake. He's downsizing to something more manageable.
I'd love to tell you about Jerry's lovely house in Westlake, but Jerry said you find it on Zillow. "The pictures are gorgeous," Jerry said.
But Jerry is far more interesting.
This Jerry told me Aston Martins were handmade cars. They pushed the cars to the next stage of assembly. He said to me that Aston Martins put the name of the guy who assembles their engines on them. Chalk that up to things I didn't know, but that's cool. And I'm not even a car guy. Neither was Jerry.
This Jerry is a Republican. Loves Trump. Doesn't think too highly of Democrats. He loved Ted Cruz.
This Jerry had a good size library. Read a lot and reads a lot. It was a function of being a lawyer; he said—that made sense.
While there, he encouraged us to keep reading like it was a religion. (Something I should take to heart.)
This Jerry was the first non-Ivy league hire at the Ford Motor Company. He was proud of that fact. "It seemed to work out for him."
I told him about the day I had dinner at a Chili's with a lawyer that had just won a Supreme Court case. Shouldn't he have been at some fancy sware toasting champagne?
"We're just lawyers," Jerry said, waving me off.
I asked him what brought him to Texas. After the Ford Motor Company, Jerry was recruited by a Dot Com here in Austin. So they moved down here. Also, Jerry's daughter did her residency in San Antonio. So they moved to be closer to her.
The DotCom went bust. Jerry was the last one out the door and turned the lights off. He's been retired for thirty years.
Jerry looks like a simple man. Tall, white, with kind eyes and a great smile. He practiced law, loved his family, and is now going off into the West to enjoy the rest of his retirement.
I asked Jerry what the secret to his longevity was.
He exercised every day.
He eats what he wants, but in moderation.
He has a couple of glasses of wine a night.
Meeting Jerry wasn't the only cool thing about yesterday. It also felt good to be out in the world working.
I haven't spent most of my career inside an office. So sure it was nice to have a break room and a comfortable chair. And sure, let's talk if I'm outside in Texas in July or August.
We'll see then.
Still, it was a nice change of pace for me.
I've talked about this before about how I need to get out of the house and be out and about more.
The one thing I didn't do yesterday is make a portrait of Jerry. I did think about it, but it seemed intrusive.
I need to get over that.
It was great to meet him.