Impulse Indulgence

Dearest Rachel –

I’m honestly not sure how you would have reacted; maybe, as you hear the details, you wouldn’t think of it as such a big deal. And, truth be told, it wasn’t quite the impulse buy as the title might indicate (although there wasn’t that much thought put into it, either, leading to the title in the first place), and even if it was, the amount being dropped on it hardly amounts to much, in the grand scheme of things. Even with the shipping costs, it would have basically been little more than the price of getting the whole gang together for sushi (which tends to be a letter in and of itself, especially since it doesn’t last a long as something like this, and I need to remember the event. Here, I at least have something tangible from my expenditure).

Anyway, enough preamble, I suppose. I should probably get on with explaining what I went and did, and hope you can understand. If nothing else, I haven’t thrown anything out, which would probably please you.

It’s not for lack of trying, though. I’d told you I was looking forward to getting back home and making myself comfortable in one of our several rocker-recliners. The boys may have all but claimed the family room these days (although with the television on the fritz, not nearly so much so, although I actually did manage to get all my errands in on Saturday, including getting them out to choose a replacement. We actually got more than I’d intended, as the salesguy suggested replacing the wall mount as well – or at least, getting a new one in case the old one couldn’t hold the new television, either due to wear and tear or, less likely, the new screen’s weight – which could be returned if it turned out to be unnecessary), but there’s always the grey one next to our bed, which you’ll recall I’d purchased in order to use up a gift card I’d gotten from my workplace as an incentive for going for a physical some years back.

Admittedly, it’s not broken to the point where it’s uncomfortable to sit in; there are no springs poking up from beneath, and it still functions as a rocker and a recliner (although never both at the same time, but then, who can do that – and who would want to?). It’s not even really the worst for wear in the house; Daniel’s old favorite in the family room is practically threadbare, but I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t countenance any suggestion that it ought to be replaced. At most, he might go along with getting a new cover for the chair, assuming I knew where I might be able to find one.

But I’m not nearly so attached to this chair as he is to his, and so, upon getting home and immediately noticing the off-balance feel of the back, I decided I’d look for a new one to supplant this one. Maybe it’s because of the fact that the money for it came from my job – while I want to remember as much as I can of you, I’d prefer to erase as many memories of that place as I can. In any event, I found myself paging through the many possibilities that Amazon has to offer, and after considering a few candidates, settled on one with faux leather and a few more options that I’ll explain once I go through the assembly process.

And yes, there was one; you didn’t think it would show up at the door fully assembled? Much as I would have preferred it to have been (or at least, for it to be a two-piece base and back combination that I could just slide together), that wouldn’t have been reasonable to expect, given that the shippers would want to condense everything into as small a box as possible for shipping purposes. Indeed, the box was so small that, when it arrived last Friday (earlier than expected – I’d assumed it wouldn’t arrive until the weekend, and I would put it together over the Memorial Day holiday), I actually didn’t notice it (to be fair, I had turned to go directly into the kitchen upon getting home, as I had plans to prepare something for the three of us for dinner. Had I gone straight to the bedroom, I would have been able to get past the box, but I wouldn’t have missed it); Logan even questioned me as to whether I’d confirmed that the chair was actually full sized, which admittedly would be embarrassing, to say the least.

But at that hour of the evening, I was in no mood to try and open it up and find out; I told myself I would stick to my schedule of assembling it on Monday, and that was that. On the other hand, I couldn’t let it just sit there, blocking the hall. So, with the help of the boys, I unloaded the various parts and got rid of the box, at least… well, actually, it got tossed down the stairs; I should probably haul that out with the trash tonight, come to think of it.

So, yeah; there it is. All tricked out with stuff I’ve never had in such a chair before. They’ll take some getting used to – and I doubt I’m going to be using the heat function any time soon, what with summer coming in and all – but at least I’m not listing over to one side or anything like that.

At the same time, I haven’t thrown out the old chair just yet, which might please you, apart from the fact that it’s now setting on your old side of the bed. For whatever reason (like I said, I might have assembled the old chair poorly), I can’t seem to separate the back of the old chair from the base. Because of that, I don’t dare try to force it out through either bedroom door. So I just hauled it around the bed, and set it on the other side. At least now there’s another seat apart from the bed itself for people to come in and watch stuff on the big screen, should they so choose to.

Was it necessary? Hardly. Is it an indulgence on my part? Yeah, I suppose so. But I think it’s an improvement, and I’d like to think you wouldn’t mind too much. As always, I wish you could enjoy it, too, but I know that any good thing we have down here is a pale shadow of the perfect things you get to enjoy, so I guess I just hope you’re enjoying what’s available up there.

But if, in the meantime, you could keep an eye on me, and wish me luck, I’d sure appreciate it. I’m sure I’ll still need it.