crush pad and sorting bins at the Torres winery in Priorato (click for big!)

It’s finally cooled off a bit in Vancouver. Cloudy. The kind of Vancouver that everyone who doesn’t live here thinks exists every day. It’s our little smokescreen or inside joke if you will. “Oh, it’s always raining in Vancouver, and we miss the sky. The clouds are so low, and the city is so grey and everyone here if they don’t go away for a couple of weeks every winter goes crazy! In fact I’m going crazy right now, ahhh I need a Starbucks.”

Just so you know, for those few of you who aren’t west coasters but read this blog, that’s not very accurate. Well except for the Starbucks part. Fact is, since late June (I’ll admit we had a very late start to summer) it’s been 30 degrees almost constantly. Maybe two days of showers. And now it’s overcast and drizzly, but it is just what we needed. And later in the fall and in winter I’ll admit that it does rain, but not that much. Enough to keep everyone from moving here, however.

I too have cooled off. At least I can sleep again what with the hot nights of thick, stagnant air seemingly behind us, though I’m now struggling to wake up at my 8:00 am alarm (yep, 8:00 am. I work from home). It’s too bad I don’t have a typical dog – you know, the type that eagerly encourages you to get up and let them out before they pee all over the carpet? Not ours. She’ll sleep until noon – literally – if you let her. There’s no telling if she’ll still pee on the carpet. Today I had an appointment in the morning and needed to get her moving at about 9 am after I’d checked some emails and showered and everything. It was what I imagine 15 year-olds are like, what I was like, trying to get them out of bed to go to school. She’s still unimpressed.

But I’m back to work and back to my routines of dealing with all sorts of tasks and projects of varying lengths, complexity and priority. The fall season in my line of work is insanely busy. My calendar for September and October is full. So for now I will revel in the fact that it is still August and try to get myself in a good position to tackle the impertinent months ahead.