One of my favorite summer activities is sitting, and my favorite place to sit is on my deck, looking out into the woods or across Devil Track Lake.
Sitting here calms and at the same time, energizes me.
My deck isn’t anything special other than it’s large, encircling almost the whole house, starting at the front door and curving around to the kitchen door. My house has a walkout basement, and the deck is on the upper level, which gives a tree house ambiance.
A picnic table nestles in the deck’s west corner with a gas grill nearby. A glass top bistro table with two tall chairs and a patio chairset complete the décor.
It’s the patio chair that makes for quality sitting. It’s at least 60 years old, might even qualify as an antique. It consists of two chairs connected by a small table in the middle. Originally it belonged to my mother and father-in-law who placed it on the front porch of their house on Portland Avenue.
Once I inherited the patio chair set, I kept it, bringing it wherever we lived.
It had become such a normal part of our lives, we failed to notice, until this summer, that the cushions had lost their oomph, their bounce.
One afternoon I finally realized I was uncomfortable. The blue waters of Devil Track Lake and the breeze wafting through the birch trees failed to relax. As I shifted my derriere for the thousandth time, I realized that sitting was neither relaxing nor enjoyable. The culprit was the cushion. On examination the realization hit. The cushions were thin and worn down. After 60 years, they were ready to retire.
Dick and I checked Amazon, found the perfect size cushions and ordered two. They arrived within a week, and we anxiously tried them out.
I lowered my myself onto the new cushion and gave a deep sigh. It was soft, yet firm. I wiggled a bit. Still ultra-comfortable. The new cushions were fantastic. In fact, they were so comfortable, I now find myself making all kinds of excuses to migrate to the deck and plop down.
The cushions are, without a doubt, the best thing that happened to me this summer.
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