In a two-storey house there is one invariant rule: whatever you want or need, it's always to be found at the other end of the stairs.

Many things can wait for transport. They are wedged into the space between the banisters (or balustrades or whatever the heck you call the uprights that support the railings), ready to be ported upstairs (or down) the next time someone is headed that way.

Other things are needed RIGHT NOW. Reading glasses are in that category. If you're home all day, you frequently need your reading glasses and they are always, it seems, at the other end of the flight of stairs.

Having to go up and down (or down and up) the stairs is great for the exercise factor, but most annoying in the interruption quotient. Task dropped, glasses retrieved, task resumed. Bah.

My dog used to follow me up and down the staircase, until she finally figured out that I wasn't really going anywhere, and she'd plunk herself halfway down (halfway up) watching, waiting for me to settle somewhere. Then she'd come and sit on my feet, or lean against my leg.

The cat can't be bothered. She appears, some while after I've stopped bouncing up and down, to curl up in a favorite spot near me and sleep, sending out sleepy signals which I try to ignore (I can attest that Sue is right about the infraCAT sleep radiation waves).

Now that you've had the long version, the short version is that I've decided to invest in another pair of prescription reading glasses to stay downstairs permanently. I may even get a special glasses case for them.

Of such minutiae is retired life composed.