Up in smoke Dec. 26, 2024

  

I'm at our office in Hometown, not the same building or even the same company as in the past, but a word space where we all crowd into a small room slightly larger than a phone booth or shower, and share access to decks and internet.

Located four light rail stops from where I live, this not a burden to get to, as in the past, I either had to drive to the Hometown office (risking tickets or worse) or walk.

This being the day after Christmas almost nobody is here, except the woman who serves as office manager.

Even the front door is locked and I got let in by someone seated in the lobby, and then by the office manager when I reached our work space.

One of the fringe benefits is usually the free coffee, only the operators of the facility are not on premise to make the coffee. Using the little used expresso machine I managed to get enough caffine to remain alert. At home, I have plenty of coffee, but an equal number of distractions and coming to the office like this helps keep me focused enough to write at least one story before I wander off into something else – such as playing my guitar.

The walk from the light rail station is just long enough to be refreshing without my getting frost bite.

Although I promised to come to the office at least once a week, I have been somewhat negligent, and started the new routine about three weeks ago, and since I did not wast to come on Christmas Eve, I'm making up for it today – even though almost everybody I need to contact stories has taken off.

Since yesterday I went into why Christmas depressed me this year, I won't do so again. I do appreciate this time between holidays because it is generally quiet, true peace on earth or at least in my mind.

I have no plans for New Years, but will likely head down to Seaside Heights tomorrow, a place I used to go to every Christmas for a couple of decades, but ceased going to after my grandmother passed away and my mother moved north, eventually the rest of the family fleeing high taxes for a new home in North Carolina.

My last visit there was just prior to Superstorm Sandy and the fires that gutted the boardwalk in Seaside Park, prior to which the place had not changed much, but since drastically, another childhood memory gone up in smoke.

 

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