That time of year, again

The week between Christmas and New Year tends to be quiet at work. We have a generous annual leave policy and very little imperative to keep production up over the holidays, so probably three quarters of the workforce is on vacation. This year, like last year, I found I needed my winter break by Thanksgiving, so I took it then, and now I'm pottering around a nearly-deserted building trying to do something useful, like updating my professional web page. Meanwhile, the roads around the building are being repaved, not before time. I don't much like coming home on the bus in the evening at this time of year; with the University people gone, the remaining bus riders can be slightly alarming.

The skeleton of the former hospital next door to my apartment complex stood around doing nothing much for most of last year, stripped to not much more than the steel frame. It seemed unlikely that after that much demolition the remnants of the old structure were going to be used at all, but in the last couple of weeks new frames have started appearing, extending the building to the north and south and filling in the vanished walls.

It turns out that I like the new Enya album, Amarantine, quite a lot. Long long journey in particular strikes a chord, as it were.

The weather is still lovely, sunny and warm.