Requiem for the sun

Every morning after I wake up, perform the usual voiding and eye opening rituals, get breakfast and sit down in front of my laptop to check email, I am bombarded by news. Some of the news is of the book variety, but most is of the local and world events variety. It also depends upon what time I sit down to read emails. This morning, it was fairly early and my usual news feeds aren't yet awake, and I don't feel very awake either. There's nothing like a jolt of marrow chilling and blood heating information to jump start my emotional and mental engines. Today, I'll have to wake up more slowly, but I'm certain the usual physician pranks and irritating habits will set my system humming in no time, providing the adrenaline I need to get through yet another day of wet and cold weather and chores. I need a vacation, a really good vacation.

The week, and the year, are about half over and the cold has settled into my bones. I crave the warmth of my bed where the imprint of my body has yet to smooth out and the heat from my dream excursions has not dissipated. Tranquility radiates from the bedroom and calls to me. It's hard to face another gray morning of weeping skies that never break into the wild, wind-whipped explosions of sound and light and sizzling momentary heat that invigorates the soul and the soil. Instead, my nose drips in slow and steady rhythm with the drip, drip, drip of the leaden sky. It was easier to sit in the evening dark without light or heat after Zeus's dazzling bolt took out a transformer nearby, abruptly ending my work day and forcing me into the world of dreams and shadows between the covers (books and bed). It was a mini vacation that ended with the sharp intrusion of returning electricity, yanking me back from a world of other days through others' eyes into the persistent hum of appliances and buzzing lamps. Without the punctuating markers of children entering and leaving their school days, all was the peaceful harmony of silence. The traffic was muted and the neighbors silent and I drifted in a warm embrace, lulled by the even cadence of breath and heartbeat.

Now it's back to the work-a-day world where the ever present tick and hum of electricity mark the time and my actions like a metronome pace I am forced to match and maintain. Just another melancholy day in a grey world beneath steel skies drip, drip, dripping bitter tears.