By BARBARA FREDRICKSEN, St. Petersburg Times

One of the great joys of semiretirement revealed to me some time back is a "Pajama Day."

That's when you don't have to go anywhere in particular or do anything urgent, so you can stay in your pajamas all day, doing exactly what you please -- eating Greek yogurt, leftover baked chicken and broccoli salad and swigging chocolate-flavored protein drinks.

Several years ago, I was chatting with a young (well, young to me) man in the food business, and I've never forgotten that conversation.

He is a co-owner of an upscale dining place and had driven many miles south to check out a new competitor.

He was back home and in a good mood.

"Not gonna make it," he said of the competitor.

Many moons ago, when I was a sophomore in college, my roommate, Donna Jean, was famous for being fastidious about her personal hygiene and appearance.

That meant roomie and I were late to a lot of stuff as she lingered over her toilette, in the grooming sense of the word.

One of the unexpected benefits of being a retiree for two months last fall and a semi-retiree now was being introduced by my friend Rochelle to a delightful retiree benefit known as "Pajama Day."

When I opened the holiday gift from my sister, it really brought home the fact we haven't lived in the same household since the Eisenhower administration.
It's a bright yellow kitchen timer, the tick-tick-tick twisty kind we used when we stood on Mom's kitchen stools to make Toll House cookies in our youth.