The Throat of Winter

Over the hump: winter solstice has passed; days are getting longer. Have you noticed?

I've started my annual end-of-the-year, vacation-time burn. The companies I've worked for over the last few years have a use-it-or-lose-it policy on accrued vacation time, so I'm forced to take time off at the end of the year. I'm home from December 23rd to January 5th. Lots of opportunities for shikantaza.

Not that I've finished working though. I still had to wrap up an unfinished business proposal today, working remotely. What did we do before the Internet?

But I did get the proposal out, and later in the day got two emails from two separate clients, awarding two separate contracts I had proposed on earlier this month. The clients likely sent out the "win" notices as they were leaving their offices for their holiday vacations.

But anyway, here on this little corner of planet Earth that I call "Atlanta," temperatures here been roller-coasting, from highs in the 70s over the weekends, to highs in the low 40s (and lows in the high 20s) the last few days. "Global weirding," a friend of mine called it.

2007 was one of the coolest in the past 10 years, and the cool summer temperatures in particular were cited as one of the reasons for the less-than-stimulating retail sales this year. "Global warming, my ass," some of my skeptic co-workers mutter, as they head outside in late December in their short sleeves, unaware of their unintentional irony.