If every day of life were such a summer day ...

It was an evening of deals for me. At a store. From nature. From music. From food.

It was a gorgeous summer evening when I entered the nearby thrift store to scan for vinyls.  After a few minutes of searching through six bins, I walked up the counter with three LPs.

"You have three?" asked the young man at the checkout counter.  A young man at the cashier's.  A rare sight at retail establishments.

"Yes, three."

"That will be 49 cents."

I was shocked.  The few old LPs I have bought over the last few years of this divorced life, the lowest price I have ever paid is fifty cents per vinyl.  And three for less than that?  I was sure he made a mistake.

"49 cents?  For all three or for one?"

"For all three.  In fact, it is 49 cents for up to five.  You can even pick two more, if you want."

Of course, I went back to the bins, and returned to him with five LPs in my hand.

"You are practically giving it away" I remarked as I handed him a dollar bill.

"I suppose.  We got these huge donations when a couple of people dropped off close to 300 records and we don't want to store them forever given that there is not much of a demand for it."

An effect of technological obsolescence.

"Would you like to donate a penny to our charity?" he asked.

"Tell you what, given that I am buying five for 49 cents, drop all those 51 pennies in the charity. Thanks" I replied as I walked to the car.

Five LPs for 49 cents.  How about that!

The western sky was beginning to turn orange and red.  With the dark rain clouds and the smoke particles from the fires a hundred miles away, it seemed that the sunset would be phenomenal.  I raced towards the nearest open space from where I could observe the colors.

I struck gold.

With every passing second, the colors changed dramatically. Orange and red and pink and violet and other colors that are not even in my vocabulary.  I was worse than a kid in a candy store. Worse than a drunken monkey. I was simply delirious.

Wouldn't you, too, have been so when you were out in the open looking at a sky like this?

Or the one below?

I stood there amazed. And clicking away like a mad man with a smartphone, all the while thinking that I should have brought my camera along with me.

It was time to go back home.

I played one that I decided would be a fitting way to end the evening.

Oh, all those were after greedily eating an awesome squash/tomato dish that I cooked for myself, with the fresh produce from a friend's garden.

Life ain't that bad after all!