There are days to waste. Not to plan or make lists or wash dishes or return phone calls or even study maps or read Lewis and Clark’s journals or scan photos or watch Book TV. Such days usually show up just when you least need them, just at times when there is a lot of the aforementioned to do.

When days like this do appear however you must make the best of it. You sit on the couch (for a change you can lie on the bed) reading and eating food cold out of the can anytime the mood strikes. It’s ideal to have pints of a favorite ice cream on hand but if not some cheese or sugarless butterscotch will suffice.

Thank god for the Village Bookstore in Grand Rapids, Minnesota with its bountiful supply of Scandinavian murder mysteries. It makes a day like today seem like it was meant to be.