When the days unfolded exactly as they were supposed to

Remember when Football Sundays were relaxing? We'd just sit around on the couch, watching the game, eating chips, maybe some baby carrots to make us feel healthy. Charlie would grill something up for lunch, and then for dinner. Zack and Mark would come over with beer and sit on our futon, the one Al gave me in Americus. During commercials the two of them and Charlie would explain to me what happened until I started to kind of understand the game myself. Sometimes I'd get bored, and then I'd walk out into our beautiful yard, the yard with the blossoming trees and orange lilies and adirondack chairs, and I'd read a book. If I was feeling industrious I'd clean out my closet or go on a walk, or that one year, look for a job. Then I'd return to the couch to watch the game and read the paper, and even though I'd done hardly anything at all, I'd have that satisfied feeling you get when you know you've done everything that you were supposed to that day.

Sigh.