My Bench

There is a park a few minutes walk from my apartment and lately I've been sneaking out whenever I have a bit of time to sit on a bench in the sun and read. But it is not simply a bench, but THE bench. I've fallen for a bench, you see. It's tucked off in a corner and allows me to feel like I am alone but still lets me see everything that is happening in the park: the dogs playing, the baseball game if one is in progress, the kids on the jungle gym, the other lazy folks like me sitting around. So far my bench has always been empty when I get to the park but one of these days there is going to be an interloper sitting on it and I don't know what I'm going to do then.

This got me thinking about favourite spots to read. When I was a kid we had this ugly armchair, but its one redeeming feature (for me anyway) was that it fit me perfectly when I sat in it sideways, my legs dangling over one overstuffed arm. I would happily spend hours reading in that chair. And there have been other park benches over the years (I'm a big fan of park benches - they are right up there near the pinnacle of civilization for me.) But my all time favourite spot to read is in bed, especially in the morning. Is there anything better than being left alone on a weekend morning to read in bed for as long as you like? Now that's civilized.