Darkness

This is absolutely not my favorite time of year. I don’t like short days. Well, let me take that back – I don’t like it dark in the morning. I can live with it being dark in the evening but I need light in the morning.

Being on the cruise ship was fine. We had to do time zone adjustments as we traveled. Sensible people ran the ship which means that the clocks were pushed back at 2 am. Since I am not up that late it simply meant that it was increasingly unlikely that anyone was going to challenge me for the use of the treadmill at 0600 in the morning.

Flying back on the 16th of last month wasn’t even that bad since one always gets whacked out by traveling east. What I had forgotten was that I was also traveling north. Germany – from the perspective of someone who lives in Oslo (for example where they are down to just under six hours of daylight) is not all that far north. But coming from Panama – let me just tell you that the change in hours of daylight was significant. Going off daylight savings time didn’t help a bit. It was dark in the morning.

For the last month I have been fighting it – the creeping feeling that no one in their right mind has any business out and about when it is dark out there. No one who is up to any good. No one who is not crazy. It even leaves me feeling mildly sympathetic toward offspring who don’t want to be up before noon. Not completely, mind you. They have studies to complete, cleaning to do, dogs to walk. But a mild bit of sympathy might just stir as long as no one pushes it.

Did I mention that it is also dark in the evening?
15 Dec 2011 08:14 16:26 8h 11m 59s − 42s 12:20 17.4° 147.241

are the numbers provided by Time and Date.Com

Do you see that?!? Only eight hours and almost 12 minutes where there is daylight. That is, where it would be daylight if it wasn’t overcast with rain……

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12 Responses to Darkness

  1. Carmen says:

    Moving to Colorado helped my Mom a lot. Still dark a lot, but not nearly so much overcast. You need some bright blue sky when the sun it out to counteract the DARK.

    So, I guess, no wonder people built Stonehenge and stuff. Get the darn sun back, ASAP.

  2. Steve says:

    Nice site. Of course, approaching the solstice is always interesting as the sun is just so darn far down in the SE…Matter of fact, this past weekend when we were having the full moon, the moon was rising in the same spot as the sun rises during Summer solstice (and the sun likewise is where the moon was during the summer)

    Solution was to go out over the weekend in the late evening…nice and very brightly lit…

  3. Tatyana says:

    Ich bin mit dir einverstanden. Ich mag Sonne, Licht. Aber ich brauche auch die langen dunklen Abende im Winter, um etwas zu schaffen- Lehrbuch, ein Handbuch. Ich mag naehen und stricken. Wenn aber das Wetter schoen ist, bin ich vom zu hause weg.

  4. Brad says:

    Looks like I will be in Arruba Feb to march, at $xxx a day, doing a lab inspection. 🙂

    Chere was easily convinced to accompany me.

  5. Holly says:

    and if I didn’t already have commitments then, I would be in the suitcase. Never been to Aruba!

  6. Beverly says:

    Wow, what long hours of daylight you have in Germany! Try Edinburgh – for
    tomorrow:

    16 Dec 2011 08:38 15:38 6h 59m 47s − 51s 12:08 10.8° 147.228

    Yup, it’s dark here at this time of year – very. When the weather is bad,
    it hardly gets light at all. Many people here take cod liver oil for Vit
    D. Hibernation feels favorite. And it’s cold – we have black ice again
    tonight and snow showers forecast for tomorrow.

  7. Bill says:

    Show Details
    Let me seeeee, how can we un – de pression Holly ?

    1. In Alaska they sell daylight bulbs for the house and you know why = gratitude and possible solution.

    2. You when getting pooped on one could move out from under the pooper.. ( cleaned up for everybody sake)..

    3. Run by the grave yard and the Hospital and the booby hatch to gain some gratitude..
    The sun never comes out for most of them…

    4. Open a bottle of Rum and drink it at 5 a m … (:>))) comes especially from this source…tee hee

    5. (refers to # 2 ) Come on over to Colorado and see the sun at 6 a m sort of or most of the time. If nothing else you can see the sunny faces of Joanna and I..

    Love and stuff

  8. AlisonH says:

    We have turned the corner to the new year. The solstice is solace!

  9. Kerri says:

    Hi, there. I’ve been trying to contact you for a couple weeks about the First Sentences Virtual Bookbox on BookCrossing. This is my last attempt to contact you. Perhaps the PMs ended up in your spam folder? Please let me know if you are still interested in participating. You are the last person in this round and I would like to get the next round started, so I’d like to hear from you.

  10. Cheryl says:

    The darkness in the winter was the hardest part of Alaska; I could handle -40 without difficulty but 4 hours of weak daylight got really old really quickly. The so-called “happy lights” really do work.

  11. Bruce says:

    I noticed your last E-mail was about how dark it gets in GE in the winter.

    I thought that Frankfurt was dark at just under 8 hours a day.

    I just realized that western Texas is down to just under 10 hours a day.

    I occasionally imagine what it was like without the kerosene lights that my grandfather used when I was a small child.

  12. Chere says:

    I’ll never let Brad complain about our little bit of dark again….(insert evil laugh here.)

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