Time flies when you’re having fun! Ever heard that before? Did you ever get home several hours later than you should have and meet the sleep deprived and haggard person at the door? The person you had great hopes of being fast asleep in their bed, wide eyed and angry, standing before you as you opened the door?

Yep, that happens to a feller once in awhile during a long lifetime. I am a feller that wishes some of the little items we think we can’t live without were not so handy to use, such as a cell phone. Sure, leave it in the seat of the truck and you won’t be bothered at all, but the person calling might just get irate!

I was at the local, or sorta local, sale barn yesterday, watching some of the fellers sell the last of their cattle due to the terrible dry spell. It was a sad and upsetting day for most of us there. I am not entertained by misery but I couldn’t pull myself away from the tragedy. “There but for the grace of God go I,” kept running through my mind.

I excused myself, finally, edged out of the crowd of stern looking men and started to my truck. Ran flat into a feller I had not seen in many years and we just gawked at each other for awhile, then shook hands, hugged and slapped each other on the back. What a reunion that was!

Jerry and I had grown up neighbors; our places were just thirty miles apart and we always met at the town ropings and neighboring roundups. He moved to Colorado with his folks when we graduated high school and I figured we would never meet again. I was astonished and thrilled to see him and to find he was looking for a place around this area.

We ended up sitting on a bench in front of the sale barn until the sale was over, and then we went to a steak house and I bought him his supper. Well, of course, I ate too. I left the phone in the truck and never thought about it again. Life stories wipe out all the incidental stuff as they’re being unrolled by the person who lived them.

We finally left the steakhouse and sat in his car for another couple of hours. It was dark and the street light was giving us all we needed. I guess it was when my back started hurting from sitting so long that I thought about going home. I invited Jerry to come on out to the house with me but he declined, saying he already had a room rented, and we made plans for him to come out a couple of days later. His wife was coming to town the next day and he wanted to be around to meet her. What a nice feller he is!

It is my opinion, and everyone has one, you do not get a get out of jail free card when you say “I do!” and all the explaining in the world will not get you in the good graces of your close relative. I am lucky to have escaped a rolling pin or an iron skillet over the head and did not escape the tears and bad mouthing that was awaiting me! I suspect the food prepared for my evening meal was appreciated by old Dog and I am hoping no one goes on strike around here!

I will tell the boss, my close relative, that I have invited guests for supper a little later when the storm settles a bit. We never get too old to get in trouble!

Bill is a pen name used by the Gravette author of this weekly column.

Opinion, Pages 6 on 09/21/2011