Decisions, decisions!

The following column originally ran in the June 10, 2010 edition of the Daily Mail.

Do you ever think that we have too many choices today? Tonight I had a new book I wanted to read. But I was also tired from doing some deep housecleaning that I am not used to doing. I decided that it would be more relaxing to just get in the lounge chair and watch TV. I wouldn’t have to think about much of anything, and could maybe even doze off a little.

But when I turned on the TV I had to decide between several programs that I do not usually watch. I could always go to my Game Show Network and watch some reruns of game shows, but that would get me interested in the game because I always try to beat the contestant.

I didn’t want to watch the news channels because the news gets me upset. I knew that the Hallmark Channel would have something good, but they ran for two hours, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay up that long.

Telephone calls about a meeting tomorrow were needed, but it seems that everyone in the county is out and about tonight, except me. I began to wonder if there was a party somewhere and I hadn’t been invited.

I decided that maybe the best bet would be to go ahead and start reading the book. I really want to read it, but I want to read it when I am in a mood to really appreciate it. Tonight, nothing seems to be worth doing, and I don’t want to start the book with this attitude.

Another choice was to play a couple of games on the computer. Free Cell was unusually hard tonight, however. I know there is a system that makes the cards fall to my disadvantage when the keyboard senses through my finger tips that I am not up to par. I didn’t want to ruin my percentage by playing when I would probably not win. It was almost as bad playing 500 Rummy, even though I have it set for easy competition. I probably would win that game, but it didn’t seem worth the effort.

I suddenly realized that I should get my column written tonight, because I have some other things coming up later in the week. But when I got settled down at the computer, Pumpkin jumped up on the table and fell asleep. No one likes to disturb a sleeping cat, especially one that startles easily. I tried to ease the keyboard out without making him upset, but that didn’t work either.

I thought back to the warm evenings when I was a child. What did my mother do to relax and have fun? She didn’t have a computer, or a television, and she didn’t particularly like cats. But she loved to sit outside in the lawn swing and watch whatever was going on around her. If we were still in Washington, D.C., she could watch the cars on Western Avenue, or see our neighbors out on their lawns, or on their porches. She would watch whichever of her children were still home as they played with each other, or the neighbors. She might have taken a magazine outside, but she usually didn’t read it much. That was something she did inside more often.

As I thought of those nights after we came back to the farm for the summer, I could remember her joy at just watching the fields, the trees, and a possible car passing on the distant road. She never seemed to be bored or restless.

That helped me make my decisions for the night. I will just go outside and sit in my new freestanding lawn swing and listen to the sounds of the night. Pumpkin might even go outside with me. I can write this column another time.