Chilling effect

The days are getting short and darker here; it's gloomy and chill by 5.30. The tourists are half what they were 2 weeks before. Lodges up at Everest are shutting down for the season. It's very cold in the AM and after 4.30, though the days are still pleasant, like a perfect fall day. People kind of hustle through the streets in zipped-up jackets now, rather than strolling. The hoteliers and shop owners seem a bit depressed; "the season" is ending and they've seen all the business they're going to till March-April (the "second season"). It's too cold to do hand laundry or take a shower now till around noon.

My eyes are still burning with that about-to-get-a-cold feeling, and my muscles are strangely stiff. Maybe it's some weird mild allergy; or just the fact that I have not been anywhere with anything like a winter in 3 years. But it's far preferable to Indian heat and humdity any day - at least I feel alive. It does take some adjusting - in South India, sunrise and sunset are invariably at the same time every day, all year long, because of the proximity to the equator. I think. Somebody tell me if I'm wrong.

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