I can’t remember ever going out and then “closing down the house” even in my former life, when I could stay up late.

But that all changed. On Monday I was out and about meeting some friends and we were the last patrons to leave an establishment at closing time.

I could say it was late Monday night, but that’s not true. To imply it was Monday evening would be wrong, as well. Alas, it was Monday afternoon. It was at The Omelettry, a restaurant in Austin. I was meeting my two friends there for an early supper.

As I parked, I noticed that there were no cars in the parking lot. None. Maybe they are between rushes, I thought. It’s early for the dinner crowd, anyway.

Almost time to mop

I walked in. I noticed there were no customers and all the chairs were stacked on top of the tables. The cook peeked out of the kitchen. I asked if they were open and he said yes. Then I noticed their hours. They close at 5:00 p.m.

Our meeting time was 4:30 p.m. I had arrived a little early (as usual), about 4:15. I was hoping that my friends would arrive early and really hoping they would not be late. They were on time. We took advantage of the time we had available to us, sat in a booth, ate and paid our bill without dilly-dallying. They locked the door right behind us.

I finally managed to close down the house somewhere! All it took was (accidentally) finding a place that closed early. And I was home before sunset. Brilliant!!