Two agreeable guys drove up in a truck this morning and unloaded a brown leather recliner. After a failed attempt to get it in my front door (they dropped it on my steps when it didn’t work the first time, but it’s okay, no tears or scrapes) I suggested they turn it on its side and “turn the corner” with it, which I happen to know is a method that works because I have moved an awful lot of furniture out of my house in the last three years.

They stood and conferred. They put the plastic covering back over it. “Why don’t we turn it on its side, like this,” said one of them, and they did exactly what I had suggested. But it was fine. I didn’t mind. Because this delivery was something I had been imagining for over a month, and all I wanted was for them to leave and let me sit down.

The guys set it up in the space I had prepared for it, plugged it in, showed me that it worked, got me to sign papers, and drove away.

I sat in it for a while. It has a simple motor that, when you push the button, extends the foot rest and then eventually leans the whole thing back. My cat Uncle Louie was not happy about the motor. I have already decided that he is not going to own this chair. He can have my other armchair, which he has already taken from me. The recliner is mine.

It is a perfectly adequate recliner: My legs are stretched out, my back is tipped a little, and the nice wide seat is comfortable. When I want to get up, all I have to do is push a button and I can put my feet down and stand up. Nothing special. Many people own recliners.

I got up and went to the store, and when I came back, the recliner had always been there in my living room. I had a light lunch, sat down in the recliner, put my lap quilt over me, pushed the button, leaned back, and slept in my new chair for two hours. I woke up confused and a little disoriented.

Is it worth spending a big chunk of my limited funds on something like this? When I could, I don’t know, fly to another country and stay in a nice hotel for a week instead ? Oh, yes. Oh, yes. That recliner is a permanent vacation, right there in my own house, and I can go sit in it any time I want. I don’t have a television. I don’t have a car. The top floor of my house is completely empty. But I have a big leather recliner, and that means I can sit in it with a good book, and not read the book at all, just, you know, rest my eyes for a little bit. Just for a little bit.