You can see me, but I'm not here

     All my life on many occasions, my mind has slipped away into some thought dream or reverie. At times it has gotten me into trouble; just yesterday I almost slammed into a slow-moving vehicle on a 55-mph road, I mean stand-on-the brakes almost. At other times it has been a great source of creativity. There was a time I spent throwing heads onto 396 and 427 cubic inch Chevy engines while a partner on the other side of the line did the same. One night he leaned over and asked "Where are you, Tim."
     With no thought at all I responded, "I'm in Montana herding sheep." And, in my head I was. He just said "cool" as if it were as normal as standing in a factory lifting 86-pound cylinder heads twice at a rate of around 100 an hour. He was probably off somewhere himself in this mindless job we had.
     Well, yesterday it happened during physical therapy. Yes, I am still recovering from last winter at the East Pole. (I just noticed, even after three glasses of wine I can type and spell better than the #fakepresident.) Anyway, I have developed a rapport with my main therapist. Several times early on while he was massaging my damaged shoulder he asked me why I was smiling. I finally explained sometimes I drift off into my mind and go places. That was OK with him, he actually kind of joked about it in a friendly way while I took some refuge in the excuse that it's about writing. One day I heard him tell another therapist,"he smiles and I have no idea where he is any more."
     So, yesterday I went in at noon instead of my regular time which meant I had to deal with three therapists instead of one because I was the only patient in the place.
     All friendly and cool, by the way, but the one woman was the primary for a while. I had only worked with her once before. I was doing some stretches with an elastic band, pulling it across my body at about stomach level. Over time I had learned you need perfect posture to do these things, body straight up, arms bent at the elbow at 90 degrees, shoulders relaxed. For this exercise to be effective, you need to maintain that but it's so easy to hunch your shoulders to pull that damned elastic stuff. I have graduated from light blue to pink and now orange, each of which takes a little more effort to pull.
     Anyway all three of them are watching me and my mind is taking off. Often I caught myself and fixed my shoulders which was always the biggest deviance I made from what they wanted.
Almost exasperated, the woman said once more to straighten my shoulders. I looked her straight in the eyes and then the other guy, and I said, "You have to understand, I am not always here."
     The usual therapist, who was doing some computer work behind the other two, laughed out loud. "That's true," he said, "I see him smile and I have no idea what's going on there, where he is."
     I looked at the woman who had been watching me and shrugged my shoulders to which she said, "that's it, now keep it up."