Working Al Fresco

I feel like a kid who finally has to come inside because the street lights are on. For the first day this week, I'm working inside. It was quite a run: four straight days of al fresco work. 

I've been writing this blog on the deck, editing articles, crafting talking points, and, yesterday, sending out a newsletter to 5,500 people, also from the deck. Kinda scary that one can do all this from the backyard ... but that's the way we roll now. 

Meanwhile, I go through two changes of clothes a day (it's been in the 90s with 70-percent humidity), drink glass after glass of water or iced tea, and every day when the accumulated heat of the day seems ready to collapse upon itself, I plug in a small fan to ease my way to quitting time.

Minor discomforts aside, working outside is divine. I type to the rise and fall of cicada song, I answer emails while birds settle in the azalea bush behind me. Though I don't hunt for worms or sip nectar to keep body and soul together, working outside makes me feel a part of the natural world in a way few other things have.