1

There.  That clears the desk for the night.  Steve sat back in his swivel chair and stretched as he looked at the clock on the wall.  Got finished a little early tonight, not quite dark outside.  Maybe I can surprise Lisa with a couple of inch thick ribeyes.  I'll stop by the meat market and see what they have.  He hurried through his shut-down of the computer and locking his desk, grabbed his 64 ounce convenience store Diet Coke (which by now was a few remnants of ice cubes and watery, bad-tasting brown stuff) and headed for the side parking lot at the dealership.

A few minutes later, as he walked out of the meat market with two impressive-looking ribeyes, his phone rang.  Fishing it out of his pocket as he climbed into his truck, he saw his brother's name on the screen and hit "talk".

"Wassup, big bro?"

"Nothing but your blood pressure," responded Mike.  "You away from that pressure-cooker you call an office?"

"Yeah, buddy, I am," drawled Steve.  "Just picked up dinner, trying to surprise Lisa if I can beat her home and get these steaks on the grill.  You oughtta see 'em!  Freshly cut, inch-and-a-quarter ribeyes!"

Mike rolled his eyes, bit his tongue, and took a deep breath, determined not to get into a debate with his brother right now.  "Interesting," he said while trying to put a friendly tone in his voice.  "What's gonna go with 'em?"

"Oh, I'm gonna stop at that take-out place and grab a couple baked potatoes and maybe nuke a can of corn when I get home," replied Steve.  "Lisa's probably not gonna be home for another hour, that'll give me time to relax a bit before starting the meat."

Relax a little.  That means in thirty minutes he'll be well on his way to incoherent, thought Steve.  "Well, good thing I caught you now.  Before you ...relax... too much, check your email.  There's something in there from me that I'd like your opinion on."

"Not more of your 'self-sufficiency' crap, is it, bro?  You know I'm perfectly capable of taking care of my family!  You have your way of doing things, and I have mine.  I don't like the variables that can affect your idea of survival."

Quietly, Mike replied, "Just go take a peek, Steve.  I've given up on trying to change what you do and how you do it.  We both agree on the fact that it's 'when' not 'if', and this email's about the 'when' part of it."

"Okay, I'll check it out when I get a chance.  I'm at the deli already, anything else you want to talk about?"

"Nah.  Talk to you later, bro."

Mike hung up the phone, thinking back to the conversation they had at a family dinner not too long ago that ended with his telling Steve, "Well, far as I'm concerned, it's a good thing you live fifty-three miles away."

Steve pocketed his phone, thinking that the only variable in his plan was easily overcome, as fifty-three miles isn't that far if you think about it.