Many years ago, when I was contemplating retirement, I wondered what I would do to fill up the days then occupied with my employment. I need not have worried. It wasn't long after I retired before my days were so filled with activity that I wondered how I had ever had time to work.

Immediately after retirement, I moved to Florida. I took up golf, joined a bowling team at my condominium, went to our pool nearly every day, played bingo, attended condominiums parties, visited, and went out to dinners with relatives and friends, entertained a lot of relatives and friends from up north, and took trips both domestically and overseas. I soon became so busy that I began to look forward to a day or two when I would have nothing to do.

As the years went by, I found that I had to reduce my activities. A few years ago , I told a close friend that I had made my mind up to do only one thing a day. Fro example, on my Writers' Group day, I would plan to do nothing else. If I played golf, I would do nothing else that day. I have succeeded in reducing my activities, but last Thursday I had a complete relapse.

Thursday I took my wife, my son, and a friend to Paintbranch Golf Course. Paintbranch has only nine holes, and we walked. We left the house at 7:00A.M. and were back home by 10. Incident-

ally, I played well except for one hole I messed up. I had five pars which was the best I have done in several years. According to my reduced activity plan, this should have been "it" for the day except for reading or watching television. But this was not to be.

The day before I had received a Maryland Vehicle Emissions Inspection Notice on our 1987 Nova. I wasn't tired from my golf, and as it was still early in the day when I got home, I though I might as well get the inspection out of the way so I would have one less thing to worry about. The notice said, "See enclosed brochure for exact locations of VEIP testing stations." I checked the brochure, and the address where I had previously taken the Nova for inspection was listed. When I got there, I couldn't find it. I learned, by making inquiry at a Mercury dealer nearby, that it had moved. I assume the state of Maryland, trying to economize because of concern for its citizens taxes, was just using up the brochures on hand after the station moved. The new emission station was only about two miles away from the old one. After a few wrong turns I found it. The Nova passed inspection, and after taking my twelve dollars, the attendant wished me a nice day.

My day was far from over. I knew I had to drive my wife to John Hopkins in Baltimore the next day for her annual eye examination. I knew I was low on gas in my Mercury which I would be driving to Baltimore. So after I drove the Nova into the garage, I gout out and got into the Mercury and went to the gas station. My lawnmower gas can was empty, so I thought I might as well get some gas for the lawnmower while I'm at it. The gas station was just across the street from my bank, so I decided to go to the bank and get our monthly cash which we use for groceries and miscellaneous other cash purchases.

I had broken the mirror on the right hand side of the Mercury a couple of days before. While I was out, I thought I might as well drive over to Route 3 to a glass place I had done business with before and see if I would get a new mirror. I drove up and down Route 3 but couldn't find it. I assume they either moved or went out of business. I was low on computer paper, and as long as I was on Route 301 or 3, I thought I might as well go to Staples and get some paper. Staples had a sale. Buy three and get one free. So, I bought four reams of paper for the price of three.

When I got home, it was 3:30. I had been on the run since 7:00, and I must say much of it under stressful conditions. I thought as I drove into the garage, "Maybe I can take it easy for the rest of the day," but I was wrong. My wife had bought one of these TV stands that you have to put together. There is nothing I hate to do more than put one of these stands together. I generally put them together wrong and have to take them apart and put them together again, and there always seem to be missing parts, or I lose them somewhere. However, this stand was relatively uncomplicated, and I only made one mistake in putting it together. All the parts were there except for one nail. The brochure said eleven nails, but there were only ten in the package. It didn't matter that there were only ten. The only mistake in assembly I made was that I put the top on wrong way. It didn't look so bad that way, but I knew if my son-in-law came over and saw it, he would laugh at me, so I took the top off and put it on right.

So ended my activities for Thursday. I knew I would also be busy on Friday since I had to take my wife to John Hopkins in Baltimore, but that is another day.