weather

Let the games begin

Dark and ominous clouds notwithstanding, last night’s thunderstorm turned out to be a whole lot of nothing. Oh sure, it rained, but not a lot, and considerably less than last week, and I don’t remember hearing any dire warnings before that storm.

This evening, I surprised myself by watching most of the Olympics opening ceremony. Here in the States, NBC decided not to air them live but starting at 7:30, some three hours late, with a whole lot of inane chatter over them by Matt Lauer, Meredith Veira, and Bob Costas. Despite that, however, most of it was actually quite moving and well produced. I’m surprised to discover that I actually have some small amount of Olympics fever this year…which I think just means I may watch a little of it now and then, as opposed to ignoring it altogether.

Another note-worthy day

We have these meetings every month — have I mentioned that this is the Year of the Meeting? — where we talk about our plans for our biggest textbooks. And it falls to the development editors to take notes at these meetings, presumably because we work exclusively on the bigger textbooks and know how to do things like listen to other people and type. We do this on a rotating basis, among the entire group, and the first meeting I was scheduled to sit in on was cancelled. So I was very politely asked the other day if I could sit in for the tail end of today’s meeting, because it was likely to run past noon, and the DE who was taking notes was in the UK and would probably like to go home at some point.

I was happy to help, not that I had any legitimate reason to refuse. Of course, the next one of these I have to do before the end of the year is on a Tuesday again…

Beyond that, just a pretty ordinary Thursday. More reviewers, more It, big storm apparently on the way. (It got very dark and cloudy here very suddenly, and it’s raining some, but the world has not yet ended, as I think was predicted.

The weather aboveground

This is kind of amazing, but it didn’t rain today. I almost didn’t know what to do with myself.

Although I noticed they seem to have stopped displaying the temperature along with the time on the monitors in our office elevators. “Let’s not tell them how hot it is outside. It would only worry them.”

Rain date

It rained today. Boy, did it ever. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

It was a pretty normal day, if incredibly hot and sunny. Rumor has it, it got up to about 100°F today, and I can believe it. That lasted until the early afternoon, around 3 o’clock, when I headed downtown to Wall Street, to take part in a focus group at Shutterstock my boss had recommended. She had been there herself this morning and said it was actually fairly interesting, kind of neat to see stock photos from the perspective of the people who provide them, and to offer them some perspective on how we use them. Plus, they were offering a $50 Amazon gift card in exchange for taking part, and for half an hour’s effort (plus the subway trip downtown) that seemed like a pretty good deal. (Plus, I could take part during the work day, with my boss’ blessing.)

The focus group itself was interesting: one woman asking me questions and a couple of others following along. I felt like I maybe wasn’t providing them with the answers they wanted, or explaining myself as thoroughly as I could. There were, of course, “no right or wrong answers,” but it’s been a little while since I’ve actively gone stock-photo shopping, and not once since taking on my current development job. But they were really friendly, and the session didn’t last much longer than the half hour advertised. (The chairs in their lobby, though? Genuinely uncomfortable. And I think my ears may have actually popped going up to the 30th floor.)

I knew I probably was going to miss my regular train home, the 4:54. I still had to go back to the office and pick up my bag (with my train ticket inside it), then get the subway back downtown again to Penn Station. A twenty-minute ride uptown, the elevator back up to my desk, then a fifteen-minute ride down to Penn. It was already about 4:15 when I came back down to their building’s lobby. But maybe I could do it, if I caught a subway right away and the traffic lights outside Grand Central were with me. I just needed to…

By that point, it had started to rain. I hadn’t brought an umbrella with me, which in retrospect is what we call a Very Stupid Move. There’s about a block between the Shutterstock offices and my subway line, and I got soaked running that short distance. I had a brief respite while the train took me back uptown, but then it was right back into the deluge at Grand Central.

I hung out under the awning at the exit on Lexington until the traffic light had changed, then raced through the bucketing downpour to the Duane Reade drugstore on the corner. Where I bought what turned out to be a pretty decent umbrella — albeit one that maybe came a couple of city blocks too late. I was thoroughly soaked — or so I thought, until I stepped ankle-deep into a puddle at the next corner and got even wetter.

I’m sure I looked a fright to my co-workers when I trudged back up to my desk. The only positive is that I was by that point too soaked to even care.

I headed back out into the rain, which by that point had not remotely let up. Bright flashes of lightning, loud cracking booms of thunder, wind thrashing the rain at you left and right, and giant puddles everywhere you step. Luckily, though, our office is only a block from Grand Central, and my umbrella was still holding up, so I got to my subway without too much more trouble.

I had some trouble finding my MetroCard, of course, and I most certainly did miss my original train out of Penn, but by that point those were just minor annoyances. I’m actually amazed that the Long Island Railroad didn’t collapse under the pressure of this afternoon’s storm. (I wish I could say the same for our home phone line; even with all of yesterday’s work, it went out again in the downpour.)

With luck, the rain — which actually stopped altogether around 7 — will cool things of a little. I’d hate to think all of this was for nothing.

Still, I did get a $50 gift card out of it, so that’s something.

Again with the Monday!

I didn’t sleep too great last night. Which is weird, because you’d think after thirty-something years of nightly practice, I’d have gotten the hang of it.

It felt very much like a Monday from the get-go, a feeling that hasn’t let up all day. I’m working from home tomorrow, which is good, because the air conditioner downstairs is busted and somebody’s coming to (hopefully) repair it. I can also keep an eye on the dog, who usually spends his days in the kitchen, and make sure he doesn’t overheat.

Right now, though, I’m just enjoying the fact that the air conditioner in my bedroom is not busted. I grow less enamored of summer with each sweaty day.