A perfect evening.

It was the 19th of May, 2008. A public holiday, I had spent the afternoon wrangling around with some work that needed doing. At around 5pm, I had gotten very bored and decided not to waste the whole day completely on working. I took a book, my iPod, my phone and my car keys and headed out the door.

I drove around a bit, trying to decide on where to read. After a while, I decided to head to a small playground of sorts. It was a pretty sort of place, with huge fir trees around the perimeter, well-kept grass and aging but sturdy playground equipment and benches, as well as gazebo-like things scattered all over. I chose a seat on one of the spring-fulcrum see-saws and started to read, bouncing up and down gently like a vertical-motion rocking chair. It gave my restless legs something to do while the rest of my body was engaged in other more useful tasks, such as holding the book in place and reading words off the pages. I began reading.

The sun's rays were muted, filtering through a bank of puffy white clouds. It provided a very comfortable light to read by, and warmed my skin slightly where it struck. It was quite a pleasant feeling. To top it off, there was a light breeze blowing through the grounds, heightening the idyllic sense of being I was beginning to feel myself slip into.

After a while, a car pulled up and the driver released a pack of truly adorable dogs into the playground, two Labradors and a chihuahua! The chihuahua was especially friendly, it came up to me and immediately started prancing about. After a few friendly overtures, I left it to tear up and down the field, chasing the other dogs. Ah, a dog's life!

Eventually the dogs had to go home and I was left to my own devices again. The sun was going down but the breeze still had not abated. I relocated to one of the gazebo-like structures, put on my headphones, piped music from my iPod through them and continued reading. I had multiple trains of thought running through my head at this time. Number one, that I had not felt this relaxed in a long time, revelling in my self-imposed solitude. Number two, Bobby Shaftoe, please stop hallucinating, pull yourself together and help Lieutenant Root toss that decoy off the plane already before AA fire completely ruins the whole mission and you die for nothing. THERE ARE NO GIANT LIZARDS HERE. Number three, if only I could replicate this setting more often. Or ever.

Eventually the sun dipped low enough and I had to stop reading. I packed up, got in the car and headed home.

I want more evenings like that.