Starting to fall

So, I looked at the weather page today and the extended forecast takes us right up to the equinox.

It looks like we're going to have one last gasp of summer weather and then the long slide into the gray season begins.

I am trying to not be regretful and to just appreciate the good summer that we had - reliably good weather, no heat domes, and no smoke emergencies. We need the wet to keep in green, right? But besides the weather, we also have the change in daylight looming.

As I write this, it's about 5:40 am. I have been up for an hour - a bit of an early start, thanks to Selkie, but not that much. I have been doing my usual first-thing-in-the-morning business at the computer and just went back into the kitchen to get another cup of coffee. It looked like this:

I was honesty surprised at just how dark it was, so I checked and sunrise was still almost a full hour away.

Now, I am not going to rail against the astronomical inevitability of the seasonal change in the LOD (length of day), although it does seem to surprise us every year; rather, I am beginning to wonder whether I need to be getting up this early. When I started my work day at 7:00 or 7:30 am, it was nice to have a couple hours beforehand for the aforementioned business as well as breakfast and whatnot. But I no longer start work at 7:30... or at any specific time. So why am I still getting up early?

The cat? He certainly contributes, but I could probably figure out a way to manage that. Habit? That certainly plays into it, but I am not sure whether it is just psychological accustomedness or if it is actually a circadian rhythm thing. I do get a lot done while Coco is asleep, but I get plenty done while she is up as well - over the pandemic, we've have gotten pretty good at staying out of each other's work-from-home way.

So, I dunno. I do know I need to start leaving some lights on.