I wake up. I think it is Thursday, but it doesn’t really matter. It is early, about 7 AM. There is plenty of time before I need to get on with my day. My bladder protests though, so I get out of bed and go to the bathroom to for a biological. When I get out of the bathroom, I notice that outside its raining. It is late October, so it is on brand. I put on my socks and bathrobe and sit down in my armchair in front of one of the windows from the living room. I put up my feet on the ottoman and cozy in. The only light comes from the windows, but outside it is cloudy and rainy, so it feels like everything is dimmed. As if the saturation of the colors has been reduced to a third. And I love it. I have found the best position for my body, and now I am just lying there. The room is silent. There is no noise in the background. No cooling fan of a computer or the buzzing of a fridge, none of the pesky sounds of modern-day life. Just the rain hitting the window. The view in front of me is beautiful. I can see the river, one of the bridges and the waterfront on the other side with all the historical buildings and everything. Sure, the weather outside is horrible, but I am inside, and I do not need to go out, so I feel all warm and fuzzy. I lie in stillness. My mind is slowly letting go the madness of whatever I was dreaming of while sleeping, it revs down, and I reach that all too pleasant state of absence of thought. I am just…there, enjoying being still. It is the best feeling.

Slowly, the rain gets more spars and then it just stops. I too am coming back to life, noticing that it is already past 9 AM. I get in the shower, then I fix myself a cup of tea and a sandwich. I still sit in silence while enjoying my breakfast. I go in my study next, and sit down in front of my computer and start to write. The deadline of my next book is coming up, but I am keeping good pace, and the book will be finished on time. The storyline and all the details are all figured out, I just need to put it in words. Today is going good. Managed to put in about 8000 words. But it is early afternoon and need to move on. I fix myself up a light snack as lunch and start checking out what is going on in the world. After 10 minutes of browsing I decide I had enough non sense and begin doing meal prep. The wife will come over later, we agreed on having dinner. Have not seen her in about a month now. We both have our own life, our own priorities, so we only get together sparsely, so that we can both enjoy the company of the other more. You know, absence makes the heart grow fonder, and all that. It kind of works, for us that is.

She arrives around 5:30. Outside is already getting dark and I am about to finish the meal. She is in a good mood. She has been looking forward to this get-together. While she is telling me about her past days I set the table and serve the meal. I open up a nice bottle of white wine and pour some. She is having a blast, having a bit of grown up fun finally, leaving all her hustles behind for a short while. We talk. We open up a second bottle of wine. We kiss. We make love.

She leaves later in the evening. She needs to be home for the kid. I load the dishwasher, letting it doing its own thing. Then I finish the last of the wine and put on some good music in the background. I check out some entertaining non-sense from the world and later on decide that it is a good time to turn myself in and go to sleep.