As I wait for my wife to complete her nighttime ritual and come to bed, I totter around the Internet on my tablet. Reddit, Facebook, Twitter. Random questions enter my mind – what Murakami book did I read first? – and I look them up. Propped against a bevy of pillows, I am comfortable and content as I attempt to not think about tomorrow, just to look forward to the sleep that is coming.

My reverie is interrupted by my tablet, rudely posing up a warning that my battery has only 10% power remaining. I am chagrined at this, and then remember that I’ve used this quite a bit today.

The question crosses my mind – what else can I do before she emerges from the bathroom? I need to charge this thing for the morrow, but my brain panicked momentarily. I reached for the charger on my nightstand and saw a pile of books and magazines, and had to laugh aloud.

I was so focused on the possibility of one source of entertainment that it did not occur to me that I had a pile of entertainment right next to me. A pile of entertainment that required no plug and no electricity, save the nightstand lamp, and only required me to reach into the draw of the nightstand and pull out reading glasses. This is a necessary indulgence as to keep me from getting a headache from straining to read words in less than 14 point font.

Tablet plugged and charging, my wife comes out of the bathroom as I’m flipping pages. I smile, put the book back on the nightstand, and put my glasses back in the drawer from whence they came.