Some days I really enjoy being at work. Oh, it's not so much that the tasks themselves are any less tedious or any more challenging on these days, but that sometimes I just become aware of the physical location, which really is quite nice for a bureau of a Big Government Agency.
This morning, walking across the campus to the cafeteria building--we're primarily a training and educational institution--and finding myself the only one out of doors at that moment, I was struck not only by the sunlight and clear blue skies anyone in the metropolitan area might have experienced but also by the acres of open space and wooded hills not generally enjoyed--at least not outside a college campus or other academic-minded government facility, like NASA or NIH--in an office this close to downtown. Sometimes just being able to get outside and enjoy the cold fresh air and sunlight, or to walk in or sit under the trees, almost makes up for the slow intellectual death the seems to be the inherent result of civil service.
