eglamkowski's Journal: The sun

So, ever since my company relocated from midtown to Roswell, I've been getting in real early, typically by 7am, because traffic is so bad that if I try to leave any time between 7 and 8, it will take a minimum of an hour and a half, maybe two hours, and that assumes there are no collisions, wrecks or stalls, and that Norfolk-Southern, in its infinite wisdom, isn't running a 500 car train across Pleasant Hill at Buford Hwy during peak rush hour. If you have any problems, you may as well turn around and go home, because by the time you get to the office, it'd be quitting time anyways. It's a total disaster. If I leave by 6am, however, I can get in in 40-45 minutes. That's 1/2 to 1/3 the commute time by leaving an hour earlier. It's just nuts.

There was a lot of talk a few years ago about building "The Northern Arc", which would have been a high-speed highway going east-west some miles north of the perimeter, more or less right where my commute takes me these days. At the time I didn't have a dog in the fight so I didn't pay attention, but a lot of people opposed it because friends of the politicians who were pushing the deal stood to make a lot of money from the sale of land along the route. Let me tell you, now that I have that commute myself, I don't give a damn who makes money off the construction of such a road, build the damn thing! Of course audit to make sure the prices paid are fair, but as long as they are fair market value, who cares if it's some politicos buddy? SOMEBODY is going to make money off the deal anyways, and that road is desparately, urgently needed.

Anyways, I'm not here to talk about the Northern Arc or the politics surrounding it, I'm here to talk about the sun.

Leaving at 6 in the morning and getting to work by 7 in the morning generally means I don't get any sunlight on the commute. There's no windows in the part of the building they have most of us seated, so I don't get any sun while I'm working. If it's not too cold or not raining, I'll go outside at lunch time, but that's a small amount of sun at a point where I've already been up for 7+ hours. Doesn't help.

Last week here in Atlanta all the elementary schools had spring break. On top of that, I worked so late into the night on several nights that there was no possibility of waking up early. I didn't mind so much however since I figured with spring break and the final four, traffic so far north where I am would be light. And I was right. So leaving for work at 7:30 or 8 in the morning meant driving into work with the sun.

This week I've been working out of the datacenter in downtown for 3 of 4 days so far. Working out of the datacenter is no fun, so I impose a fee for having to do so of getting in around 9. But since it's a straight shot down I-85, I can generally leave around 7:45 or 8:00 and still make it in around 9, so again this week I've been driving in with the sun.

So here's the point of all this: when I wake up and get into work before the sun has even started to rise, I find myself tired and grumpy all the time. When I wake up with the sun and drive into work in daylight, I don't find myself sleepy at all. It's not just that I get extra time to sleep - even if I get to sleep by 10pm on the days I wake up a 5:30, I still am tired and grumpy. Even if I get only 5 or 6 hours of sleep on the days I get up at 8, I am completely fine all day long. Even if, while at the data center, I don't see the sun again until I leave at 6pm in the evening, I am fine.

So all I'm really trying to say here is that it is quite amazing just how much impact the sun can have on your quality of life. It is so important, at least to my biology, to get that sun light in the morning. Life sucks without it. And you just can't make up missed morning sunlight with afternoon sunlight. Doesn't work for me, anyways. It's totally different and totally unhelpful. I gotta get that sunlight in the morning to help get me woken up and properly functioning.

Another point of view...

[FroMan]

I am up at 6 and in work by 7. I like not seeing the sun on my commute in because I am driving east, and in Michigan they make the roads in a grid since there is rarely anything to stop them such as hills, mountains, or whatnot.

I also work 10 hour days so I can take an extra day off during the week to stay home with my kid. In the winter that means it is dark again by the time I get home, which is also fine by me as I am driving west.

I don't notice much difference in my attitudes towards the amount of day

Northern Climes

[Shadow Wrought]

Not as Northern as some, but in Portland the summer's are great, but the Winter is dark. It tends to be overcast here anyway, and with the sun setting before 5 and rising close to 8am, I spend most of the Witner with only the briefest glimpses of sunlight. For the most part it doesn't affect me much, but it is nice to have when you have it!

It's not nuts.

[Talinom]

If I leave by 6am, however, I can get in in 40-45 minutes. That's 1/2 to 1/3 the commute time by leaving an hour earlier. It's just nuts.

It's the new normal. Seriously. I had the same situation here in Washington. I changed my schedule to get in at 5:30am just so I could reduce my commute time by 1 hour. Each way. I now work 15 minutes away in bad traffic; seven to ten if it is good.

Mayor Nichols seems to have decided that he needs to make traffic so bad that people will be forced to take public trans

It Makes Us

[mercedo]

The sunshine at sunset is too hot. The sunshine of afternoon is too strong. The sunshine in the early morning makes us happier and healthier. It is just warm and moderate.