It was 1 hour and 37 minutes after noon,

(I’d checked the kitchen clock.)

and I was enjoying a retired mans breakfast.

Then I sat in my recliner in the living room

for the time it takes to eat

a crunchy-honey-crisp apple for dessert,

usually 7 minutes but lengthened this time to 14 minutes

because after I finished chewing the good stuff,

I shuffled outside to the back porch to toss the remaining parts

behind one of the bushes growing along our property line

for the cardinal family who nest among its branches to enjoy,

seeds and all!

I watched them gather for their eucharist

for at least 10 minutes….

Then I came back inside to sit in my recliner (again)

to listen to Nancy talk to Michael,

(her 52 year old son, my step-son, in Wichita, Kansas)

who she doesn’t feel old enough to be the mother of)

on the phone for 6 minutes….

Then I checked the washing machine

to see how many minutes were left in the wash cycle: 8.

so I went into the study and sat at my roll-top-desk

to begin writing this…. thing.

(20 minutes for the first rough draft…. {so-far}.)

By then the first load of wash was done.

(I’d heard the washer buzzer buzz 9 minutes ago)

So I am going to get up, go back to the laundry,

stuff the wet, clean, wash into the dryer

and put that stretchy-elastic-corner-bottom-sheet

into the washer all by itself.

Otherwise I’ll have to spend at least 5-7 minutes

pulling my underpants and handkerchiefs

out of those damn-elastic-corner-pockets where they get caught!

So it’s really quicker to wash the sheet alone

because by the time it will have taken

to get the first dry load folded and placed in my dresser draws,

(9 minutes)

the single-elastic-corner-sheet will be finished washing

and it only takes 5 minutes to dry by itself

and then, after it’s folded,

(which is a real pain in the ass anyway,

2 – 3 minutes)

I can start thinking about supper:

Are we going to eat in?

Maybe spaghetti?

Or are we dining out?

(Out, as it turns out, which we are doing

more and more of, frequently, since we retired

and have so much more TIME to enjoy life!)

Do we have reservations?

For what time?

I had to ask Nancy.

She keeps track of what we enjoy doing

much more closely than I do…

(I am much more relaxed about enjoying, I think…)

But I remembered at noon, maybe 12:22, or there abouts,

that we are going to enjoy catching the 7:35 movie

at Surf Cinema tonight

and I hate to be late.

The movie is a remake of that great

old Gregory Peck war movie,

12 O’clock High.

He has a nervous break down in the last few minutes.

He’s been watching the H.Q. clocks second hand

go round and round and round

as he waits for his pilots to return

from their suicide bombing mission over Nazi German

where timing really counts,

surprise and fighter escort and so on…

Some don’t.

Hmmm!

See?