Temecula City Manager Shawn Nelson is retiring at the ripe old age of 51, and we at the TSR want to add our thoughts and best wishes to the mound of accolades which he is receiving. After all, a man who built as many parks as he did deserves every shovel full of his $136,000+ annual pension for the rest of his life. We’re proud of you son!
He was a City Manager who made hay while the sun shined for he always kept his sunny side up. He was a man who took no wooden nickles, nor threw caution to the wind, but he looked before he leapt and he never got in over his head. In fact he kept his head when all about were losing theirs and blaming it on him. He kept a stiff upper lip and his nose to the grindstone. Of this man we can say he is a jolly good fellow, which nobody can deny, and I know for a fact that he did it his way. He was a serious minded manager who let bygones be bygones, but remembered the Alamo.
He fought fire with fire, he kept the home fires burning and when he couldn’t stand the heat he got out of the kitchen. He always closed cover before striking but struck while the iron was hot. He fed a cold and always starved a fever. He carried a big stick, he was a Pepper, a man’s man, early to bed and early to rise, he laid his cards on the table and put the pedal to the metal.
He did the Macarena.
He was able to rock around the clock, put time in a bottle and party like it was 1999. He gave us three steps, three steps mister, three steps toward the door. He was a rock, he was an island, a bridge over troubled water. He hammered in the morning, he hammered in the evening all over this land. He is the walrus. Goo goo gojoob.
Upon arrival in town, he thrust his nostrils in the air and asked “Where’s the beef? He expects more but pays less, and when he makes a run for the border he leaves the driving to us, because he never leaves home without it. He has snap, crackle and pop, because sometimes he feels like a nut and sometimes he don’t. He takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’ because he knows how to spell relief and he never, ever believed it was butter. He squeezed the Charmin and he HAD milk. He’s stronger than dirt because he thinks outside the bun, and he’s now free to move about the Country.
He never fired until he saw the whites of their eyes because he praised God and passed the ammunition. He has not yet begun to fight. He put his best foot forward, his money where his mouth is and when the going got tough, he was gone. He measured twice and cut once, and by making a stitch in time, he saved nine.
He came, he saw, he conquered. He was the best of times, he was the worst of times. He floated like a butterfly, but stung like a bee and he had a bird in the hand and two in the bush. Like a good neighbor he is there and Brother, he can always spare a dime!
It’s not easy to find the words to honor such a man, but we’ve done our best.
