Extreme Solutions to the Mid-Day Lull in Missoula

By Big Sis, 9-27-07

Do you often feel incapacitated by a mid-day energy lull?  Maybe, like me, you hit a wall between 1 and 3 p.m. 

This is the time of day when the blood pools somewhere around my ankles, my butt is numb from a poorly-designed office chair, and my eyes are tripped-out with computer-screen-induced cobwebs.  Other (arguably more advanced) cultures have evolved to take the time-honored ‘siesta’ at this point in the day. 

But in America we work through it.  So, when I find myself gazing longingly out the window at the real world, I have to remind myself that I am not, actually, a caged zoo animal and I should therefore get the hell out of my office. 

I usually go for a stroll down to the river trail, hoping the fresh air will revive my brain and reinstate some blood in my butt.  I just returned from one of these strolls, and I think I witnessed the extreme solution to a mid-day lull in Missoula.  Here’s what I spotted:

A businessman/father I know vaguely from around town was taking his own stroll.  But he was walking across the Clark Fork River from Caras Park, carrying an inner-tube under one arm and his laptop under the other.  And he was fully dressed for entrepreneurial success in slacks and a button-down shirt while wading thigh-deep across the freezing-ass cold river.  I watched him slosh up to his Audi, change his shoes, and drive away.

I felt mildly jealous because 1) I bet his blood was circulating way better than mine was when he got back to work, and 2) he can carry a laptop over slippery rocks without dropping it in the water.

Since I’m not brave enough to wade fully-clothed in the autumnal Clark Fork, does anyone have any other approaches to stamping out the mid-day lull in Missoula?  I’m all ears...especially since my butt is numb again.

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