How do you unwind after a demanding day?
First, I come home and take the dog to the local forest for a while. It is not really a forest. It is a park. But people call it The Forest, which makes it sound much more impressive.
I throw the ball for her to catch. Not to chase. She has a genetic condition called Exercise-Induced Collapse, so we have to manage her exercise. She still loves it. She watches the ball with that fixed attention dogs have, as if this is the most important thing that has ever happened. Sometimes we see her friends there, other dogs at the end of their day, and there is that brief meeting of dogs and owners, everyone doing more or less the same thing. Getting through the late afternoon. Letting the day wear off.
Then we come home and have dinner. We eat early here. Very early. Think institutional early. There is something faintly ridiculous about this, and I know it, but it works.
After dinner I usually do a few things on the computer. Nothing very dramatic. Just the last bits and pieces of the day. At seven we watch the news, which is almost always grim. I keep hoping there will be some turn in the cycle, some evening when the world will appear less vengeful and less broken, but that does not seem to be how the news works.
Later on I either read for an hour or make a start on the next day’s blog. Usually I look at the prompt, jot down a few ideas, and leave them there. I have learnt that some thoughts do better when they are left to ripen for a while. They settle somewhere out of sight and come back clearer in the morning when they are usually ready to be picked up again.
No one would call it exciting. But that is not really the point. After a demanding day, I do not need excitement. I need familiar things. The dog. The walk. Dinner too early to be respectable. The news, however grim. A book, or a few lines for tomorrow. Then bed. Sometimes that is enough to carry a person from one day to the next.
The Afterword 
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