Alaskan Artist - Elise Tomlinson
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09/13/2004: "The Fall"


I used to love this time of year. The smell of rotting leaves on chilly days with clear blue skies. But in Juneau the fall is the time of year I dread. It starts to get cold and rainy and the leaves don't turn color as much as they die and blow away in a single weekend. The last couple of days I've felt so tired and lame and it all coincides with the start of the fall semester at the university...that means non-stop deadlines and getting up in front of rooms full of young kids and having to be prepared and social on demand and sometimes I just hate it.

My friend Julie stopped by to see me this afternoon. She's a database manager for the state and she's received almost all of her training on the job. They're even paying her to take some programming classes etc. Talking with her this afternoon reminded me of how much I love doing IT work and how that was my oringinal track (system's administrator) in grad school. Probably I'm just having a bad couple of weeks, but I'm seriously considering my options.


Replies: 4 Comments

on Tuesday, September 14th, Dio said

Oh I love this time of the year still. We are having our first real taste of winter and its like the scales are falling off.

I spend the heat of the summer hating it, it induces lethargy and now I feel I can get stuff done and go outside without rendering my flesh to a 3rd degree burn... :hehe:

on Tuesday, September 14th, Howard said

It doesn't start to get really bad in Vancouver till about the beginning of November. Thats about the time the unending rain sets in. It can be the most depressing time of the year.

on Tuesday, September 14th, elderberrystudio2000NOJUNKMAIL@yahoo.com">Jackie said

E:
I always loved Autumn in Alaska. There was this renewed energy to get ready for winter: berry picking, making jam, putting up the late silvers & kings in the freezer, having the first fresh venison of the season...Kodiak is usually crisp and windy in fall.
Here in Seattle - it's not quite fall yet, but summer is on its way out, and it's dark already around 7/7:30, and when the rain clouds pile in, it's really dark. I'm bracing myself for a rainy winter.
The really sad realization came to me last month, when I was in Kodiak for a visit: I'm not an Alaskan anymore. Kodiak isn't 'home' anymore. I'm a Washingtonian - an 'Outsider'. It was nice to take a chill, and feel how life moves so much slower in Kodiak: traffic, people, the daily flow of things. It is so jarring to be swept up in the maelstrom of urban life in the Lower '48 - but this is home now. :(
Take care - hope your downward slump starts to look up...

on Tuesday, September 14th, support@elisetomlinson.com">Elise said

Dio, how hot does it get in Wales in the summer?

Here, it never really gets that hot. We had several days in the 80s but mostly it's in the mid 70s and 60s. The nicer than usual summer here did distract me from getting as much art work done as I would have liked. I guess I can look at the change in weather as an opportunity to spend more time at home.

I think Howard in Vancouver can probably relate to the constant cold rain scenario I'm talking about, though I thought Wales was a pretty rainy place, and Seattle too for that matter.

Don't get me wrong Jackie, I *loved* the fall when I lived in South Central Alaska. It was my fav season. But Southeast is different. The constant overcast sky and cold rain just makes me want to stay curled up on the couch with hot cocoa and watch TV or read.

I think it would help if I bit the bullet and turned on my furnace. It has been getting into the 30s (F) lately and my house is flippin cold. I got this monster oil heating bill a couple months ago and so I turned it off to save money. Now it's like a fridge in my house so if I get out from under my blanket I start to turn blue.