I have gone from one extreme to the other – from the floodlit parking lot in Jersey City were the street lamps were almost as tall as the skyscrapers, and I needed an Ava Gabor eye-mask to get to sleep, to a State Park in the Finger Lakes where nary a street lamp exists, and the brightest light in the park is Venus in the night sky overhead. It is perfectly peaceful here in Taughannock Falls State Park. Like a balm after 23 days in the city.
But darkness is coming on fast.
This will be my first winter as a full timer, and I must admit, I am a tad bit apprehensive. It’s not the cold that concerns me. I have three heaters and six wheels to outrun the cold. But I can’t outrun the darkness. Since I have been working full time in the RV, I live for the end of the day when I can get out for long walks or bike rides. But those are getting shorter and shorter, between my requirement to work Central Time Zone hours, with Eastern Time Zone darkness ever encroaching.
I think back to what I did during the long dark winters while living in my “sticks and bricks.” It was a weekly line-up of reality TV and the continuous CNN loop. I am no longer addicted to this mindless force-fed flow of idiocracy, having sworn off TV since I moved into the RV. I am happier living in blissful ignorance, using the internet to catch up on the headlines only when I feel I can stomach them. But I do wonder how I will fill the dark nights. Oh, sure, I have plenty of books to read. But it is going to take some shifting of schedules to expand my daily exercise beyond 150 sq ft!
Taughannock Falls State Park (pronounced “tuh-GHAN-ock”) is known for the 215 foot waterfall that plunges into a misty pool, then runs three quarters of a mile down Taughannock Creek, dumping into Cayuga Lake, the longest of the eleven Finger Lakes. It is the highest free-falling waterfall east of the Mississippi River. Both the lake and the falls are accessible by foot path from the Taughannock State Park. There are rim hiking trails on both the north and south sides of the gorge, as well as a lower level Gorge Trail which runs along the creek to the base of the falls, allowing you to cover in 45 minutes what it took the Taughannock Creek 10,000 years to do.
Though darkness appears to be in a mad rush, the Finger Lakes fall color is taking its own sweet time…
I can understand your apprehension but I have no doubt that you will thrive. It’s good to hear that giving up the black hole of TV has enhanced your life. Beautiful photos!
Thanks for the nice compliment on the photos, Kim. Are we going to see some pics of the new kitchen soon?
In the winter I try to arrange my time so that I do all I can do my work after dark, leaving as much as possible daylight time for being outside, errands, etc. Long dark night might as well be work time…..used to take some reassignment from the brass but they were willing as it was hard to get people for the evening shift. Now I’m working by the job so have even more control long as I get it in on time.
I stay in the Northeast most (some years all) winter so that helps with the heat too, can better utilize what I do need all in one chunk. Daytime I park in the sun (if there is any) and that’s about enough. Cut my fuel usage in half that way, happily.
Sarah
Hi, Sarah, Thank you for stopping by, and for the nice comment! Great suggestions, though right now, I am tied to the same time zone as my client. I just need to stop my night owl tendencies and get up with the sun!
Aside from telecommuting from New Zealand, there are no easy answers to your work timeframe. Even without a work timeframe, we struggle with shorter days/longer nights…and succumb to the blasted boob tube. I’m not proud of that, but one can only read and write so much after a full day of hiking/biking/walking our preferred southern landscapes of Utah and Arid-zona.
You have no choice but to climb out of your cocoon, bundle up, and embrace winter’s ill-timed sunrises and sunsets. The nice cold slap in the face will do you good…Me? I’ll be sipping a beer and watching American Idol-atry 🙂
Box Canyon Mark
BCBM, Telecommuting from New Zealand sounds like a brilliant idea! But then I would be working the night shift. 😉
At least you didn’t say, “Me? I’ll be sipping a beer and watching the Arizona sunset!”
You can “gain” almost an hour of daylight by “hugging the line” between Central and Mountain time zones. It really does make a difference being further west with the “extra” daylight. This lets you keep your Central zone requirement but gives you that little extra daylight.
Yes, I am looking forward to slipping back over that time zone line, probably right about the time we “fall back” to standard time! LOL! Well, at least I won’t lose an hour of daylight!