I'm seeing reports that the Pacific climate oscillation has gone into La Nina mode, which probably means a cold winter. That's what I was expecting, given that it stayed warm so long. We'll see if we get it.
It occurred to me a couple of days ago that I have seen the sun march north and then back south again from various cubicles at work, and when we get close to the winter solstice, on weekends I'll be leaving as the sun is just beginning to rise and getting home hours after it's set. The latter is already happening, of course. So for a few weekends at least I shall be living a twilight existence, only seeing daylight when I leave the building to get lunch.
*sigh*
Friday night I got less than five hours' sleep. Saturday night I got less than five hours' sleep. It wouldn't be so bad if I was only working eight-hour days, but with the mandatory overtime and the inflexible scheduling, the weekends are brutal. Monday I can sleep until 10 AM, which should help.
Still, it'd be nice if I could go to church. I miss it, and I miss singing in choir, too. Especially this time of year.
* * *
Even though I have not been writing words, I've been working on the new novel, thinking about what will happen when, and how. The first 55 pages are encouraging, because I read them and don't get the feeling that I've wasted paper. I suppose that feeling will come sooner or later, but not yet.
There are still some characters to introduce, and some exposition to do; the very next character I'm going to add is Alison Nijinsky, a singer who was part of the Alternity campaign set in this world. Her fortunes have suffered in the last few decades. She's a sensible person, so she's got plenty of money, but she's got almost no following any longer and her pride keeps her from giving away "the good stuff", and popular music has turned away from artistic ability and towards crapmusic (a genre I have dubbed "screech") so she rarely does shows any longer. Imagine Rosemary Clooney in White Christmas and you're not far off--that kind of voice, anyway.
Once the exposition and introductions are done, then I can skip ahead to the real action. I'm looking forward to it.
This week, however, we have a crapton of errands to run on Tuesday, and Wednesday is car maintenance day. So I'd wager I won't have time for writing.
We'll get there. Mandatory overtime won't last forever (probably not past the end of the holiday season, if last year was any guide) and they may even cut hours a bit here and there. Here's hoping. Thursday and Friday were slow enough that I actually got to go to a team meeting, for the first time in 154 days--four months, three weeks, four days since the last one, in mid-June.
* * *
Those new jeans I got are still the most comfortable pair of jeans I've ever owned. I'm not sure how that is, but it is, and I'm grateful.