Caffeine

 So... This is weird.

I've been a caffeine addict since, oh, the early 90s. I have never particularly liked coffee, but if I don't have my daily morning cup, I'm tired and logy all day, and I get headaches. (And when I say "cup," I mean generally 16 oz. of pretty strong drip coffee.)

 There've been a few years where I tried to quit during the summer, figuring the day length would make it easier. I haven't done even that in at least 15 years.

But as soon as we got back here, I went to coffee every other day. And not because I felt I needed it, more out of habit, and because if I want an iced drink, coffee is always an option (one of many).

Right now I haven't had coffee in about three days. And I feel fine. No headache. Alert and focused. Also, now that the travel fatigue has receded, I seem to need less sleep than I ever have in Portland.

So what gives?

I noticed this the last time we were here but I didn't go all the way to no coffee. I thought, and think, that it's the angle of the sun and intensity of the light, more than day length - evidenced by the fact that days in Portland summers are much longer than the longest days here. But I remember vividly sitting on the steps in front of Vollum Auditorium, when I was a student at Reed fresh from Tanzania, and being unable to convince myself that it was noon because the sun was so low in the sky. It just didn't seem right. It has never seemed right.

And so even though the days here are significantly shorter that they were in Portland when we left, and the skies have been cloudy and rainy quite a bit... I DON'T NEED COFFEE,

Who'd have guessed?