It's beginning to look a lot...

Three days ago I wore shoes without socks to work, and didn't need to wear a coat. This morning greets me a little more seasonally.

Common People

I dreamt, oddly, of Jarvis Cocker the other night, and am now filled with nostalgia for the days of 90's BritPop.

Moo

Driving home on Scotland Road tonight, the herds of cows in the adjacent fields were joined by tiny baby calves, all spindly legs and endlessly flicking tails. The farm owners had also put up an easel sign by the road: Drive Slowly and Carefully -- Goslings and Turtles cross here.

I love my evening commute.

Snow

It won't stop snowing. At least once a week, a storm erupts, dumping more and more of the white stuff on the streets, the cars, the small strips of land between house and sidewalk in this neighborhood. And we're running out of places to put it. Streets are plowed, sidewalks are shoveled, and the piles of snow on every available space that isn't street or sidewalk grow taller and taller.

And then work. Each day brings some new challenge, some new development-- but none of the previous storms have yet melted. I nod, and add the next new thing to the pile. I shovel out a space, only to turn and find it's been plowed in by someone else. What happens when we all run out of room?

I have a new mantra: "I want to live a life of quiet contemplation." Or maybe not so new, just newly articulated. Perhaps if repeated oft enough, it will be attained.

In Memorium

What floor, please?

I had a reoccurring dream last night, one I haven't had in a while and had nearly forgotten. In this dream I'm at work, in my 11 story office building, and I've discovered that the building has a secret... if you take the elevator to the 7th floor, where this one specific department is housed, and get off into the elevator lobby, there's a separate special elevator that takes you to a hidden floor at the top of the building. On this floor is a bazaar of sorts... many different booths selling all sorts of exotic foods and crafts, kind of a cross between a bazaar and some sort of fairgrounds, really. The roof is all made of glass, and it's sunny and festive. When you leave the floor, if you take the correct elevator, it's not an elevator at all but an amusement park ride that whizzes you back to the first floor via a roller coaster, first in the dark, but then bursting outside, with spectacular views of the city (what city, I'm not sure, it's certainly not Danvers)... and in the dream I can feel the sort of dizziness that the ride induces.  At the point that the ride ends, I usually wake.

Last night the dream was different, though. Because in real life, the 7th floor is no longer the home of that separate, specific department-- now it has been remodeled... and it's where my own department is now housed. So last night, in the dream, I knew that the special elevator and floor existed, but I couldn't figure out how to get to them, because of the remodeling. I kept traveling from floor to floor, sometimes taking the elevator, sometimes taking the stairs, and never being able to figure out how to get to that secret elevator and floor. At some point, the office building turned into a mall and I continued to wander between floors, searching. A co-worker came up to me and inexplicably handed me a carnation, and I already had a magazine encased in plastic in my hand. I carried both items around with me; even in the dream I was not really sure why I had either one. I decided to make one last ditch effort to find the secret floor, and once again got on an elevator... partway through the ride, the elevator stopped, and the doors opened. Without thinking, I walked through the doors, only to find myself on another elevator that had stopped exactly next to mine, between floors. I turned to go back, but the doors to both had already closed. There was a young business man on the second elevator, and I tried to cover my confusion by making a joke about the fact that I wasn't sure why I crossed over from one to the other... he was polite, but not really interested or amused... and I awoke.

Change Changing Places pt 2

Today we went straight into mid-July.

84 degrees is hot. 84 degrees is especially hot when there aren't any leaves yet on the trees to afford one some shade.

I think it might be Spring in my heart, though... does that count?