Fake Skylight

I don’t believe in God but I think we’re here to help each other and cats are here to protect us from ghosts. I’m minding a house at the moment while the owners are on some yacht trip. It’s so quiet and dark here that I started falling asleep last night with my eyes open, looking around the room for any patches of light. I’m also meant to be minding the cat, but her meals come from an automatic dispenser that says “FEEDING TIME” in an Australian accent and she doesn’t seem to want much from me. She stares at me and I talk to her and rub her squishy round face for a bit then she disappears again. The fridge is like a mini Moore Wilson’s and there’s a huge plastic bag of hotel soaps from around the world under the sink in the guest bathroom. I don’t know how to use the oven or coffee machine and I’m probably not going to learn. People always ask if I get paid to sit and I say that I could probably charge, but I prefer to keep it in the altruism zone. If these people feel like I’m doing them a favour they recommend me to their friends, then maybe one day I’ll get to sit in Sydney or something.

Back at my real home a truck has been coming each day to blast the paint and rust off the steel beams of the parking building next door. Crunchy debris snows down on everything outside. There won’t be any more sunlight within spitting distance of my windows until November. I have a plan for the dark months this year. In a couple of weeks I’ll double my medication to try to offset the fatigue and poor spirits that make me want to leave Wellington for 6 or 7 months out of the year. That’s the extent of the plan. If the bupropion can fix the fatigue then I can keep doing my 3 or 4 jobs and working towards my fitness and nutritional goals. I can run in the dark, I’ll get a hi-viz, maybe a headlamp.

There’s a guy on Youtube who made an artificial window from an old satellite dish with some reflective material on it and a really high-powered LED. His process is pleasing to follow, the thing’s enormous though. The sort of thing we should be owning and using as a community (another one for the list - computer printers are the #1 item). I’ve spent a lot of time researching heliostats, full-spectrum lamps, $80,000 fake skylights and so on. I understand why Maui went off like that, I too would like to slow the sun. I’m not a hero though, just another person trying to control what they can about their environment, body and experiences. I’m undecided if that’s completely selfish or the first step to contributing anything to the wider world. My colleagues like that I never get upset about anything at work. Cats like me because I’m calm. I’d share it if I could, but it’s bespoke and expensive.

How do you beat the winter blues? Sound off below Purgies!