(One day, in a an effort to compliment someone who __ done something nice)

  There are certainly some instances in which the expression is regionally applied throughout the South, or it’s used differently among various people of the South, because, as I was growing up, it was used by my mother and grandmother, who were both born and raised in the South, yet moved further North by the time I was born. My experience was that it did not always apply in a sarcastic manner when they said it. It would be within the context of the conversation, or within the context of how the words in the expression or the words in the broader sentence were stressed or emphasized that determined whether or not it was sarcasm. Of course, that does not mean that there are some parts of the South or among some people or within certain uses where it is 100% and completely an always sarcastic, even today.
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  Good point.  I have that same perspective concerning how glowingly some people speak about impending retirement as if it’s the most wonderful thing in the world. To them, perhaps, but not to me. As a die-hard workaholic and as a person who absolutely loved his job, loved doing his job, loved going in every day, I had no desire (or plan) to retire. For two years prior to my expected retirement date, I made my intentions known to management that I wanted to apply for the three-year extension that was available to me. Regulations required that the extension paperwork could not be submitted that far in advance, so I bided my time but at least the supervisory staff was aware that I wanted to keep working. Had it not been for Covid-19, with its shutdowns and work-from-home provisions, I believe that I would have been allowed to continue, instead of being put out to pasture like elderly livestock. Grrrrrrr.

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