I’m late! I’m Late! For a very important date! (I think?)

For someone who has no sense of when he is (I rarely know what month it is let alone what day); someone who is violently allergic to all time pieces, I somehow manage to be on time (if not downright early) for any appointments I might have. I am not sure how I do this. It is certainly not something I inherited from my parents! Well at least not from my dad, who was notorious for being "fashionably" late. He actually made an art of it.

What makes this odd skill of mine even more odd these days is the fact that I don’t drive. I need to rely on alternate forms of transportation (often my feet) which makes it all the more amazing that I get places on time. Today I had a meeting scheduled at the club where I sometimes work as bar staff. Since it was a nice day, I do not drive, and I am in serious need of both outside time and … gasp … EXERCISE! … I chose to walk the three and a half miles to the club.

Now despite the fact that I do sit-ups every day (at least one when I finally get out of bed), and quite a bit of walking (multiple jaunts to the kitchen), I am not exactly in shape. Though technically pear-shaped IS a shape. Once upon a time I walked ten miles a day (uphill of course) and ALSO exercised twice a day. So the going theory was that three and a half miles would be a mild stretch and over in seconds.

One hundred and fifty yards and three rest breaks later I was glad that I had left myself a few hours to get there. Of course I was carrying my camera with me which weighs roughly two hundred and fifty pounds so it is understandable that I was slightly out of breath (that’s my story and I am sticking to it!).

Oddly, many gasping breaths, blisters, twinges, clicks, and seemingly days of sweat pouring travel later, I found that I was at my destination in slightly over an hour (I may not own a watch but hey that’s what phones are for right?). And I was right on time!

Except that no one else was there.

The lights were shut off. Doors locked. Parking lot eerily empty. Thinking maybe I somehow beat everyone there, I waited for about twenty minutes. And the eery silence remained. I guess something changed and I did not get the memo. Thankfully it was only another three and a half miles home and I can rest for the next month from my ordeal.

Seems being punctual has its downside!