Some of the best nights you’ll have are just a porch, a cold drink and nowhere you have to be.

Having nowhere to be is the rare ingredient, not the drink or the chair. Most good evenings are spoiled in advance by a start time somewhere later in them, which quietly converts the whole thing into waiting. Take the obligation out and very little else is needed: a porch, something cold, somebody to talk to. The empty schedule is the expensive part.

Protect one evening this week by putting nothing after it. No plan, no deadline, nowhere you have to leave for. Then see how long you and whoever is around end up sitting there.