01/05/95 - From my journal

01/05/95

Sometimes they would stay home all day, never leaving the house, except to get the mail.  This was especially true on very cold days when he would light a fire and they would sit together reading or talking or drinking coffee.  Hour could pass without a word being spoken, but at other times they discussed and debated, sometimes passionately, the issues of the day.  On these days at home they sometimes watched videotaped movies, compromising the selections because their tastes in cinema were often different, she being more inclined to choose Howard’s End over one of his Lethal Weapons films.  A pot of soup might be bubbling on the stove, she might watch a soap opera for an hour, either one of them might get involved in a bridge game with the computer, and they took turns letting the dog out and in.  Sometimes they listened to talk radio, which nearly always spawned some sort of discussion.  They would let the phone ring until the machine picked up, and they didn’t talk to anyone unless they wanted to.  They would even leave the garage door closed all day in the hope that no one would ring the doorbell.  Late in the afternoon, they would make drinks and enjoy them by the fire and try to decide whether they would dress and go out for dinner.  Sometimes they did and sometimes they didn’t.