Q: What are you going to do now?

A: I'm going to stay at the house and write fishing stories.

I'm going to be the houseperson in the home. I'm going to cook cheap, nutritious meals from scratch, run errands, take care of the kids when they get home from school. A homemade snack, a Band-Aid.

Q: Good luck with that.

A: Thank you.

Going to writers conferences riles me up.

I don't need to rile myself up.

Q: No.

A: I need to relax, and enjoy my golden years.

Q: Your golden years.

Free as a bird.

A: John Cage said the birds aren't free. They're fighting over scraps of food.

Q: It's going to get worse.

A: Probably.

It usually does.