Leaves are finally beginning to let loose in the cool breezy afternoons... it's that time of year again. The warmth of summer has at last crept off for it's 3 season hiatus, and I can already feel it's absence in my bones. I can sense my core temperature dropping, and my eyelids feel remarkably heavy and neanderthallish, almost as if I have some sort of built in hibernation instinct. I've often considered the possibilty that somewhere in the depths of my mother's family tree there was an eskimo descendant that slept with a kodiac bear for either warmth or money.

With dimming memories of last winter, fear should run tandem with the pre-dawn chill. I suppose there is a mild panic that I feel as I watch the sun rise through the steam puffing from my lungs each morning. One of the many drawbacks of this job that I've taken, which I have come to reluctantly accept, is some form of seasonal depression. This depression can come from the brutal weather and working conditions, lack of vitamin D, or the concern that old-man winter will freeze or bury the job-site as well as our income.

It's a sad callous reality that people working as hard as my crew does, on a day to day basis, can be thrown into the same situation each winter. I suppose if masons lived more financially and socially acceptable lives, it would be possible to take a few month off to let the worst blow over. But stonework and responsibility have been feuding since man perfected the fermentation process. Out of the 8 people that I work with, I am the only one that has never had a drug or alcohol problem, been to jail, or gambled myself into a hole. Let conventionality be damned, I'm gunna be the world's first responsible stone mason. That may not save me from mother nature though.

I barely mannaged to scrape through last winter by riding off of my summer savings account and my extremely cost-effective living situation. My cost of living this year has risen substantially, but so has my payroll and savings account. Work prospects are also looking brighter than last year. We may just be able to weather this one through no matter how heavy the snow comes down.

I've also decided to take a huge step in wrapping up a whole mess of unfinished business that I have left untouched and unconsidered for the past 2 years of my life. I'm going to sign up for 2 night classes at the Art Institute during winter session, which will only leave me with one class in the spring to get my degree. Chapters close, life moves on, characters progress...

Looking back on this blog, I think this pressure in my chest is wholly appropriate. Well, I propose a toast. Here's to adventures, challenges, and the dilusional wish for an indian summer that continues into march!