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I've done it maybe 5 or 6 times since I got my license in early 2008. But I haven't done it in a while. The main reasons that it almost never happened are that (A) I am now retired, and (B) before I retired, I worked from home, only leaving the house for the occasional client meeting. So I tend to always take my time getting ready to leave the house, and I virtually never rush out the door. Even on Sundays when I'm playing with the worship team, and I have to be there at 7:30 am, I get up at 6:00 and take my time getting showered, dressed, have my coffee, and then head over to the church which is only about 5 minutes away. I've gotten in the habit of always patting my breast pockets (ID holder, reading glasses, and cellphone), left front pants pocket (knife), right front pants pocket (keys, misc.), right hip pocket (wallet), left hip (holstered gun), and right hip (magazine carrier) as I'm walking toward the back door to get to my car. I repeat that silly Monty Python mantra to myself: "spectacles, manticles (begins with T, rhymes with spectacles), wallet, and keys!" as I pat my pockets.

The very few times I have left without my pistol, I was in a huge hurry. Hurrying only pays if you're being shot at, and hopefully I'll already have my gun in hand by then. Otherwise, I move like the old bull in the story about the old bull and the young bull, and the herd of heifers at the other end of the pasture. Hurrying almost always gets you less than taking your time and getting it right.

Not included in the above: whenever I have flown out to California instead of driving. I just don't need the commie headaches at the airport in California. I get there, and I borrow one of my younger brother's pistols if I need one. But I can't carry there anyway, so I rely on other means of self-protection. If I'm driving, it's a whole 'nuther game because I am passing through more than just two airports. When I drive out there this May, I'll bring a G26 and a shotgun or lever rifle.

Like most of us, on the rare occasion I've left my gun behind, I feel like the proverbial public speaker, who delivers a speech at a nudist colony one night. Out of respect for their tradition, he delivers his speech in the nude. Out of respect for him, they all put clothes on that night.

I hates it, I do.