Well, I was at the office for the past 10 days working, no less.

As you may or may not remember I announced my semi-retirement as of last Jan. 1. Diane and I have been traveling quite a bit. We saw all eight of our grandkids within a three-week period.

We saw the five New Jersey boys and girls in South Carolina in April when they were on Spring Break. We had a lot of beach time as the weather was perfect for us.

The next week, we drove to Las Vegas to help daughter Toni with her move to a new home. She rented a brand new house in the Rhodes Ranch planned community on the southeast side of the city. It has four bedrooms and is on a cul de sac. It doesn’t take much of an excuse to go to Las Vegas and see grandson, Camden. He’s our miracle grandchild, who had his heart re-constructed when he was just four months old.

Now three years old, he’s smarter than all get out. He runs everywhere he goes and he loves to shoot baskets with his dad, Jason.

He got me going again when I was going to bed one night and he climbed up on top of me while I was lying in bed and he put his head on my chest in a hugging position.

Our next stop was to daughter Holly’s temporary home. She is having a major renovation to her home in Carlsbad, California.

I went with Holly to see all of the work they are doing. They have torn out most of the interior walls in the lower level. The designer has created two open spaces for her living-dining areas and the former kitchen-family room areas.

I thought the house was fine as it was. The entire project started with a thought of expanding the kitchen.

During the construction period, she rented a house that is on the water at Lake San Marcos. They invited us to visit them while they were in the “Boat House,” as their two girls referred to it. The first morning, the girls caught 30 fish between them. They were mostly perch and bluegill, although five-year old Addy caught two good-size bass.

They threw back all of the fish they caught since there are catch and release rules in effect.

Holly’s husband, Bruce, invited us because he read my column when I told of the time I was “kidnapped” and taken to the White Mountains for a fishing weekend.

That trip remains the only time as an adult that I have caught a fish.

Well, despite Bruce’s promise that I would catch a fish, I came up short once again. He showed me how to put on a lure, the various kinds of lures and bait to use. He called it Fishing 101. We were told they had put a chemical in the water that week so the fish went deeper and no one was catching them.

That’s just my fishing luck.

I returned to the office to find everyone talking about the visitor they had earlier that morning. Special Publications Editor Linda McThrall spotted a three-foot rattlesnake slithering across our patio. He went behind one of the posts upon seeing Linda, and she called the fire department.

They were here in an instant and removed our visitor. The firemen said he was kind of flat, indicating he was probably hungry. I wonder if he knew the lunch room was just inside the door a foot away.