What do you look forward to when you've been gone?

Everybody has several things that makes them sigh, “home sweet home” after they've been traveling for a few days, don't they?

Back when I had dogs at home, I looked forward to the enthusiastic greeting I knew I was bound to get when I first saw them on my return.

There was a time when I couldn't wait to have a cup of coffee brewed from fresh-ground beans from my own Bunn coffee maker, after suffering through days of motel-made coffee.  We carry a pot with us when we travel, but it isn't a Bunn; so I still look forward to home coffee.  However, I no longer drink coffee in the late afternoon and evening.  So that particular pleasure has to wait until I awake next morning.

My recliner feels especially nice after I've spent a couple of evenings in motels with uncomfortable chairs.

Even nowadays when I carry my Internet with me on the iPad, I'm still glad to settle in at my home computer as soon as I've set my suitcase down (and made coffee).

Yesterday when we got home, it was good to see that the two baby chicks we bought last week survived three days without us.  Would you believe they've pretty much doubled in size in those three days' time?

When I have flowers and garden plants growing, I can hardly wait to get the bags unpacked so I can go outside and see what flowers have bloomed (a clump of Iris is almost there), what seeds have germinated and raised their little heads above-ground, and whether anything is ready to harvest (yesterday I found radishes).

These days, though, the two things I really look forward to happen in the morning after I've had my first good coffee in days:  Meditation and exercise.

I wish I knew what it is about meditation that feels so good.  When I first started meditating last winter, it was hard to clear my mind and send all the random thoughts on their way as soon as they appeared. These days it's a snap, but I still can't do a proper job of it in a motel room with Cliff asleep in bed not far away. Am I afraid he'll make fun of me if he catches me sitting with my eyes shut? He wouldn't, of course. Anyhow, it 's so nice to drink my morning coffee and then go on to meditate.

Then I hop on the stationary bike.  Sometimes I'll do a few minutes on it as soon as I get home. In the mornings, I set the timer for 45 minutes or an hour. I walked for exercise for many years, and have regretted not being able to do any calorie-burning activities since my knees started giving me so much pain. Well, the stationary bike sometimes helps them hurt less, and never seems to cause an increase in pain unless I've skipped several days. Then it hurts somewhat for a couple of days until I get back in the groove.

Not everybody with bad knees has the same kind of experience I have. Cliff has a hip and one knee that bother him a lot: he tried several times to get past that and ride on the stationary bike, but he just can't do it. It hurts him. With the heart issues he's had in the past, I do wish he could find some way of exercising, but I don't know what it would be. I'm not going to suggest upper-body-strength-training exercise with weights, because I can't even force myself to do those.  We're adults here, we each know our limits and make our own choices.

What do you look forward to after being away from home for a few days?