hello darkness my old friend

It might have been ill-advised to stay up painting until four in the morning on Fall Back to Standard Time night. This will be my first time change in three years. The twice yearly clock setting fiesta is not something I missed while in Arizona. There's no reason to save daylight in a land with perpetual sunshine. People who have never lived in the phoenix area desert can't really appreciate the intensity of the glare. Lots of folks thrive on that bone bleaching sunlight, but it made me want to crawl in a hole. My friend Laurie once said that if seasonal affective disorder can be treated with lightboxes, reverse seasonal affective calls for your own personal dark drippy basement. That might not be an exact quote but the image has sure stuck with me. (assuming of course that there's such a problematic mood issue attributed to too much sunshine. i'm not sure if this is validated by anyone with credentials or research, but it's validated by me and my control group of one) . I like to imagine that in moving back to Oregon I moved back to my drippy basement. I grumble a little about the hassle of of adjusting to the new time. I could go about my business well enough but I know that tomorrow morning, just like today, two short people will be clamoring for breakfast earlier than I'd prefer. Mornings are never my most successful portion of the day, and certainly not the day after the time change. But this time, this time if I did any grumbling it was to myself and paired with an inexplicable gladness. If the leaf colors and dropping temperatures weren't enough, certainly falling back an hour heralds the deep thick of my favorite season. I am so glad to have a reason for sweaters and warming cold fingers on mugs of hot drinks. It's something I've missed and every signal I'm here again is welcomed.