Flying Poodles

The Solstice

Thankfully, the winter solstice is past for another year.

I hate the weeks just before the winter solstice, as the daylight hours get shorter and shorter and the nights go on and on. You wake up at 6 AM and it’s still dark out. You go back to sleep, wake up again, and it’s still dark out at 7:30. Dawn is just breaking as I write this at 7:44 AM. I always find myself sinking into a “who gives a damn?” attitude, craving long naps and wanting to eat massive amounts of chocolate. It’s hard to look forward to another day that will be dark and dismal by 3:30 in the afternoon.

And don’t get me started on the combination of long nights with the Pacific Northwest’s famous damp and gloomy weather.

Anyway, another solstice has come and gone, and this morning it was slightly lighter slightly earlier. More and more with passing years I sympathize with the pagans who celebrated a few days after the solstice, as soon as you could tell the nights weren’t quite so long. My entire street decorates with lots and lots of lights. Tell me that’s not about chasing the darkness away!