In a fit of wholesomeness I have been drastically curtailing my caffeine consumption. I've been pursuing this project for a month, if I'm calculating properly, which would make you think that I should be recalibrated by now. And indeed, I'm not having headaches. I don't feel like a petulant grumpypants when coffeetime rolls around. It's fine.
But yet, just now I caved in and had a proper caffeinated latte and suddenly found that I was finally, FINALLY able to complete a handful not-at-all onerous work-related tasks I have been completely unable to bring myself to do since we got back. Oh, that's where my ordinary, distinctly pathetic normal level of productivity went.
I call that mean. I thought the whole point of this sort of thing was that you get dependent on caffeine to maintain your ordinary level of energy, then when you wean yourself off, you reset, but with a newly acquired general glow of good health. But no, it seems I have gone from Hardly A Dynamo to Somnolent Earthworm and stuck there. The Uncle Alec plan lets me down again. Tsk.
I remember back when Mason and Dixon came out, reading a lot of historical background about the introduction of coffee to Europe and how the resultant decrease in societal lassitude fueled a lot of creative ferment. I've felt less bad about caffeine dependency ever since then.
Posted by: The Modesto Kid | 07/07/2009 at 08:13 PM
Coffee is the engine of Western vigor, to be sure! It just seems a bit unfair to have it be the engine of one's own barest scrape of non-utter lassitude, instead of any actual vigor as such. It seems like something more wholesome could surely swap in for an effect so minimal. Miso soup, perhaps?
Posted by: redfox | 07/08/2009 at 10:32 AM
Perhaps Sriracha?
Posted by: Amy | 07/11/2009 at 01:00 AM
Mmmm, sriracha. That's an excellent idea.
Posted by: redfox | 07/11/2009 at 09:06 AM
Somulent?
Posted by: ben | 07/13/2009 at 11:53 PM
I'm sure I don't know what you mean.
Posted by: redfox | 07/14/2009 at 04:46 PM
Uncle Alec!
"why, he must love cold water like a duck!"
Sorry. That quote's been drifting around in my head for, let's see... almost thirty years, and floated to the top just last week. Crazy. Are you my better-educated, more-literary doppelganger? I think yes.
Posted by: Another Anna | 11/07/2009 at 07:37 PM
Hooray! Oh, Uncle Alec, you wholesome schemer.
Posted by: redfox | 11/08/2009 at 02:04 PM