Relatively content

Ah. March 19 and patio weather is already back.

It's dark. It's quiet.

Even at 3:13 a.m., this set-up works. Juice glass of cabernet left over from last Tuesday. Blanket over bare knees. Radio coming through the screen door. Competitive, speed game of online Scrabble in process with fellow candle-burner.

It took a long day to get to this reward. Work -- non-stop projects, until after 8. Elliptical machine at the gym until 9:45. Then home, only to not possibly stand the griminess of the bedroom one moment longer, necessitating the ripping apart of bed linens and scrubbing out of  litter box and sweeping dust clumps from behind night stand and hanging the big rug to air on the patio and remaking the bed with brand new foam-green sheets and pillowcases.

Some nights I'll take this reward rather than ever-elusive sleep. In this mood, I don't fear the morning.  In fact, I'm already anticipating the iced black-eye and the walk I'll take back to the office on the fourth sunny spring morning in a row.

Ah.