Even retired guys like me get a day off, today was mine. I stayed away from the computer & blogs from this morning until this evening. I just knocked around all day.

Carl (retired Army, Retired Ford Plant assembly line foreman) with his excellent sense of timing, stopped by the house as I was putting the finishing touches on a couple of New York strip steaks that I had been broiling on the Weber.

“Where ya been all day,” he asked with an eye on the steaks, “I called several times.”

“Well, let’s see,” I replied, “this morning after breakfast, I went over to the storage place to tuck in the old Ford for the winter. Shot the breeze for a time with Shelly. Business is down a bit for her—not so many collectors wanting her climate-controlled storage service any more, it seems.”

“Where they puttin’ their cars?”

“Just in those secure-storage places you see here & there around town,” I said, “not climate-controlled, but less expensive.”

“I thought ya had to store ‘em in a heated place”, he replied, as we went into the house.

“There’s some disagreement about that,” I said, grabbing the now baked potatoes out of the oven, “I use Shelly’s ‘cause that’s where I’ve stored the old girl since I retired her 20 years ago. Shelly’s never raised my price.”

“OK, so after that where’d you go?” the nosy old friend asked, as he go out some plates and silverware and put them on the table, “Like I said, I’d been trying to get aholt of you all day.”

“Went over to the Boardmans to visit my little buddy Daisy,” I answered, “grabbing the salad and dressing out of the fridge. I offered to take her over to the off-leash park. I intentionally asked Jack in front of the dog, she’s a smart little thing, and got all excited. Jack could hardly say no—so off we went.”

“How long didja stay there?”

“ ‘Til about an hour ago,” I mumbled through a mouthful of the most tender succulent steak you can imagine. “I checked my voice mail, and I did get your messages.”

"So why didn't you call me back?"