Change is in the Air

It stormed early this morning. Thunder, lightning, even a tornado or two nearby. By 4:30 a.m. I had already switched off the alarm.

By 9 a.m. it was already clearing and the wind has, finally, shifted almost 180 degrees. It's blowing steadily out of the North now and cooler, drier weather is coming. About freaking time. I had the a/c running at the house again last night. Still, the forecast isn't calling for any really cold weather. It will dip down to maybe the upper 40s around here at night, but most likely we won't be firing up the central heat until some time in December. We have an old "unvented" gas heater in the living room, sort of built into the opening of the old coal-burning fireplace. It's the kind with the ceramic back that starts to glow red when it gets heated up. That one little heater can keep most of the house comfortable until the temperatures start to stay under 50 for extended periods of time, so we often prefer to use it rather than turn on the big old central heater down in the basement. That monstrosity was installed long before we owned the house. It resides in the spot where the original coal-burning furnace must have been. You can still find bits of coal scattered around down there. I am quite certain that the whole arrangement would send any good heating/air-conditioning expert into immediate cardiac arrest.

The timing of this change in the weather couldn't be better. With Thanksgiving tomorrow, people are starting to slip into the holiday mood. At the University, it always seems that people start kicking back a few days before any holiday. It's almost certain that by the time we're half-way through December most meaningful work around here will cease. The phones will stop ringing, the faculty will start to disappear, and the days will start to seem longer and longer. In fact, it's after 11 a.m. right now and my office phone hasn't rung once all morning!! Of course, I wouldn't mind hearing from those guys at Data Systems who were working on my computer and were supposed to return yesterday. I spend the better part of yesterday trying to get everything more or less back to normal, but some things are still kind of screwy.