The Return Of Swamp Neck

Today did not get off to a great start.
Back when I was living in Tucson I came to understand that, to an extent, the fact that it’s a “dry heat” actually does make a difference.
When I was offered my current job, there were people who attempted to discourage me from taking it, as it entailed moving to Virginia where it “gets humid” and “it snows.”
Given that the alternative was to stay there fielding tech support calls from people who shouldn’t be allowed in the same room with a computer, let alone tool around on the Internet, for an amount of money that is, at this point, about a third of what I make out here, these were not compelling arguments.
After all, I practically grew up in the frickin’ tundra, so Virginia’s pathetic attempts at snowstorms couldn’t frighten me. And in the summer months, a good portion of my parents’ property was swamp land, so humidity didn’t scare me either.
Still, while the snowfall is laughable, the humidity of the summer can indeed be oppressive.
In fact, in the time that I’ve spent here I’ve developed a condition that I call “Swamp Neck,” an affliction that tends to be at its most prominent from June to September when VA is at its most humid.
Basically, the back of my neck sweats. A lot.
It does this whether I’m active or sedentary, and it causes a tremendous amount of itching and irritation.
It’s at its most intense when I’m sleeping, frequently causing me to wake up in the middle of the night with a sudden fit of dampness-induced itching that can drive me to the brink of insanity.
Last night marked the return of Swamp Neck, waking me up about two hours after I’d finally gotten to sleep.
A thunderstorm had been keeping me awake prior to that. At one point I had just begun to drift off when a nearby lightning strike set off thunder so loud that it sounded like it was right in my bedroom.
In any case, I didn’t get the best night’s sleep.
There is an easy way to deal with Swamp Neck, but it’s not cheap: turning on the A/C.
I’d prefer to avoid using the A/C as much as possible, but as this will mark my fourth year of dealing with Swamp Neck, I think my parsimonious ways will get tossed out the window…though they would actually bounce back at me, as the window will be closed to allow the A/C to work as efficiently as possible.
But whatever.
After a rough night of barely sleeping (I turned on my HVAC’s fan without actually turning on the A/C, which helped a little) I was awoken by music, music which didn’t sound familiar, so in my barely-conscious state I assumed that it couldn’t possible have anything to do with me.
After all, if were my alarm going off with music stored on my iPod, you would think that I’d recognize it. I didn’t, so therefore it wasn’t my alarm.
Of course, the music refused to go away, and after the first few chords I began to recognize the song (“How Could She?” by Type O Negative, for those of you wondering) and realized that it was, in fact, time to get up.
Normally it takes a couple of minutes for my eyes to adjust before I can put my contacts in and be (relatively) comfortable.
That took longer than usual today, and combined with a significant amount of lethargy, it took me over 20 minutes to put my contacts in, brush my teeth, put on my workout clothes, grab my gym and lunch bags, and head out the door.
Once I was finally on my way I realized, just as I was about to exit the parking lot, that I’d forgotten my badge. I was annoyed that I’d done so, but glad that I’d realized it as soon as I had, so I turned around, regretfully left the cool, air conditioned comfort of my car, however briefly, and headed back inside to grab my badge.
I got to the long-ass stoplight just as it was turning from green to yellow to red, ensuring that I’d have the longest possible wait. While there, I marveled as I often do at the amount of traffic. I mean, you would think that one of the advantages of commuting at 4:30 in the morning would be a lack of traffic, but such is not the case.
Once I arrived I found that my lousy night’s sleep seriously impacted (negatively) my desire to proceed even with the crappy workout routine (which is still rather light as I continue with my “easing back into it” cop-out), and so initially I’d only done one set, and found myself damned amazed that I even did that much.
I was about to pass the rest of the time by hitting the treadmill for a few minutes, but as I started I said, “Screw this,” and forced myself to put in another set.
With that out of the way, I showered, headed over to the convenience store to pick up a protein bar and a SoBe Energy (and a few other snacks), and came in to work.
I was greeted by 10 tickets total, with 4 active issues. That’s not really a lot under normal conditions (and is nothing compared to days past), but with only one person working the desk, it could be a hassle.
If necessary, Brian can come over and help out, but he had a big issue going on at the start of the day, and so couldn’t simply come over to fill in, but fortunately I found that three of the four issues were, in fact, non-issues, and was able to close them out, bringing me down to one active issue.
So I won’t really need Brian to help out (as long as things stay quiet), but I will, no doubt, be driven mad by the sheer mind-numbing boredom of sitting here alone with little or nothing to do.
And there are two more days of this ahead of me.
Still, I think I’d rather be bored than feel all frazzled and overwhelmed, though I can be reasonably certain that I just jinxed myself. *Sigh*
In any case, I suppose that I should get back to…to…well, back to something.