The weekend weather

First we got a week of glorious, uninterrupted sunshine.

Then, over the weekend, we got two days of crazy strong easterly winds with a mix of sunshine, cloud, and sleet.

Today, and for rest of the week, we’re back to the normal British spring time weather of grey gloomy clouds.

The changeover reminded me of old TV sets. When we switched channels, there was a brief period of electronic noise before the new channel started playing. The weekend’s crazy weather was like that electronic noise while switching the weather channels.

77.4

I’m happpy.

Weight is down. At 77.4 Kg, it’s the lowest it’s been since December 2017, and within touching distance of the all time grown-up low in early 2015.

I’m running again. 5 consecutive days after 3 dreary runs in 3 weeks.

I’m working. It’s hard and happy work. Just the kind that drives me crazy yet leaves me happy.

I’m reading. I’ve run out of things to watch on TV so have been happily spending evenings reading in bed.

The boy is sleeping with me again. He comes and snuggles up while I’m reading. He even forced R to open the doors to come to me last night. And again this morning.

Autumn is at its most beautiful. I get to enjoy it everyday on my runs.

I’m listening to music that I like.

And, it’s sunny today. People outside northern Europe won’t understand how valuable is a sunny November morning :)

Light, weather, and productivity—thoughts from a summer rain shower

My (home) office is in a small attic conversion. I have a large window right in front of me, and a smaller one behind. Light from the small window creates a reflection on the monitor, so its shade stays down. I like a lot of light in the room, so I prefer keeping the shade on the large window open.

The large window faces south, and overlooks my backyard. The trees on the mount provide the backdrop. When the sun is up, the south-face means it shines straight through the window, and into my eyes. There’s a cluster of trees to the east end of the backyard that stops the sun coming in early in the morning. Later in the evening, the sun dips sufficiently to the West for the light to not fall straight on me. However, if the sun is out, for most of the day it shines straight into my eyes, forcing me to close the shade—darkening the room.

…if the sun is out.

That phrase is at the centre of my paradox.

I am happier when it is sunny. I am also a lot more productive when there’s a lot of light in my room. Sadly, the position of the window means that I can’t be both.
If the sun is out, I can’t keep the window open so am neither uber-productive nor very happy.
If the sun is not out, I can keep the window open, so am quite productive, if not as happy.

This is where the seasons also make a play. In winter, the days are short, and the sun rarely makes an appearance even in those short days. This makes most people sad, including me. But this also means that I can keep the window shade open all day. This gives a tremendous boost to my productivity (and relative mood).1

In summer, the days are long, and the sun makes an appearance more often. So I need to keep the window shade closed most days—a dampener to both productivity and the mood. The mood recovers a bit from walking/running in the sun during the midday break, but productivity does suffer.

Why am I writing this now? Because I just recorded this observation.

I had quite a productive autumn-winter-spring this year. However, I have been struggling a bit to keep the work going at the same pace since the sun started showing up. However, for the last 10 days or so, we have had a fair amount of rain and rain-like weather. This has meant very little strong sun, and I have been able to keep the window shades open. Productivity has been through the roof!

Continue reading Light, weather, and productivity—thoughts from a summer rain shower

Love the rain in LDN these days it…

Love the rain in LDN these days – it pours well, more like the monsoon back home than the dreary, fickly drizzle this city usually gets.
I love the sun – always have, but more so in LDN since I know I’ll soon be spending months in a row begging for a good sight of it.

The rain, accompanied by those loud thunderstorms and lightening, wrecked my plans for a century ride to Brighton today. Still, finding it really hard to diss it. In fact, wishing for some more… rather lots more… before a dry day tomorrow :)