Darkest Before the Dawn

I wake at 6:00 and these days it's still dark. Arghh. I don't like that.

The worst part for me is knowing that very soon it will still be dark when I leave the house to drive to work. By late November or early December, it will probably be dark for my entire drive. Why, oh why, can't someone in my company get a clue about the greenness (and other benefits) of telecommuting?

My manager ordered a heater for my cubicle. It arrived yesterday. The problem with my cold cubicle is that there are four air conditioning vents placed equidistantly over my head to blow cold air into my cubicle, on top of my work space, to set up a typhoon of frigid air swirling over my neck, shoulders, and hands. One day last week I even donned gloves. I sit in my chair wearing a fleece jacket, a pashmina shawl, a scarf over my neck, and a blanket around my legs. A heater is a nice thought, but it's not going to offset four air vents in the ceiling! Yes, my attitude sucks, but if you'd give me a cubicle away from those danged air vents, I'd be much happier.

You know those canvas covers you could have made for convertible cars years ago where you could zip yourself into the car and just your head would sticking out? You've seen them in period movies. That's what I want. I want a canvas cover that is attached to the sides of my cube with a pullstring to secure it around my neck. Then my hair will blow in the breeze from the vents and the rest of my body will stay warm. Hey, I could probably get a patent on it, sell it to all the other cold cubicle-dwellers in the world, and quit working. Then my temperature would cease to be an issue. I could stay home and sew all the time!

But back to the dark outside. Les bebes and I went to Mill Creek Park last night for the final concert of Summer Fest. We heard Maureen and Todd and the Easy Street bunch sing a number of Broadway show tunes. We took a blanket, not realizing that the rest of the audience would be in chairs. Next year we'll take chairs so we can actually see. And next year we'll arrive forty-five minutes early instead of twenty minutes so we can sit near the stage. Live and learn!

This summer has been manageable, climate-wise, for me. I was concerned, when I moved up here, that I would die from the heat and humidity. But there have only been about four nights when I've been uncomfortable trying to go to sleep. And by morning it had cooled off enough that I had reached for a blanket. Now that's the kind of sleeping I like.

So I won't complain this year. And maybe my next year I'll have air conditioning for those too-hot nights. Who knows . . . .