Where Do All These People Come From

I'm not sure what I thought happened in society while I worked, but full parking lots and long check out or ticket lines was not in my imagination when staring out the window of a conference room during the middle of a work day. Wasn't everyone ensconced in their own office or conference room? Doesn't everybody work during the day, hence the expression "work day?" Surely traffic is very light, except maybe over the lunch hour. Store clerks everywhere are chatting with each other as they stock or rearrange shelves waiting for the late afternoon and evening when those offices empty and the streets fill with traffic. Restaurant employees wipe tables, clean floors, and drink coffee waiting for lunch or dinner hour. Movie ticket takers only report for work after their first "day job," right?

That illusion fed my imagination as I occasionally contemplated what life would be like in retirement those last few months before leaving the confines of busi-ness. I had visions of free ranging during the weekday while the worker-bees were in their hives, and then holing up up at home or on the boat during evenings and weekends while those worker-bees left in search of sustenance.

Reality has since intruded on my misperceptions. Whole universes of society must work at night and shop by day. Or be retired. Or be without work. Or be on vacation. Or taking time away from the job during "work hours." Apparently I am to share this recreational lifestyle with hoards of others engaged in - well, whatever they're engaged in.

Maybe Randy and Linda really had it all figured out, after all. Surely Cornucopia is quiet all days, with only an occasional rush of a dozen or so people in town at the end of the day, on a holiday, or before a winter storm. He must enjoy the absence of lines, or parked cars, or crowds of people. Oh, wait.... what was that I was reading about the sea caves?