It's chilly this morning. I should close the door, but it takes so long to cool down once it gets hot out that I like to keep it cold in here rather than warm. People have been walking around with jackets since Saturday, when it clouded over (when was the last time that had happened? Feels like months, still, no rain here.) All a far cry from just a week before that with all the wildfire smoke and close to 100 degrees, finally running the air conditioner, the ceiling fan on high, and the box fan on high, and still lying around in a puddle of sweat.
Have hardly done any reading this month, both because I really need to replace my glasses and because I feel restless. Took a few days of leave, after realizing it had been two years since I'd taken a vacation, pretty much to do nothing, though I had a task force meeting (how to prioritize building improvements, and spend some grant money) and a work party at the garden. Went to the zoo on Friday; I was in the neighborhood (walked over to a bakery up there) and missed the animals. The wolves were out, the lone bear was wandering about, a massive eagle was hanging out above the elk, all the pigs were out and about and the snow leopard was sprawled out on a rock, camouflaged, appearing much larger than I had thought it was. It was busy, but never felt overly crowded.
Anyway, I'm back at work today. We're back on mandatory masks, but will still be back on site next month, at least as of now. Infection rates had gone up a couple of weeks ago, but are back down in the teens (at work.) I moved back to my regular "office" last week, so have to keep my mask on all the time, since I don't have a door. In a lot of ways, I'm still looking forward to being back on site (mostly) full time. It's easier to get things done there, and I feel like I've been just holding for the past year and a half, and that feels unhealthy after awhile. You have to find a way to get on with your life even when what was ordinary ceased to exist. Most of us spent so much of our lives in comfortable safeness, thinking that was normal, how things would always be. We lived in a bubble. It was an anomaly. Maybe you could call that luck.
