Please indulge me…
Off house topic… but one of my favorite fascinations… especially this time of year! I could drive my poor husband bonkers with my daily countdown but, Scott, in his imperturbable way, nods, acknowledges, and immediately forgets what I just said…
I do know we are two weeks past Summer Solstice, but I absolutely love the countdown to winter. Maybe because I am a winter baby… maybe because I lived in Hawaii and it wasn’t a matter of approaching dramatic temperature changes… and, maybe nothing more than since Josh spent most of his time in our living room and, during certain times of the year, the afternoon glare of the sun could be debilitating. But, I noticed during the winter months the living rom was pleasant during the afternoon. The sun shifted sufficiently allowing diffused, rather than harsh, light to fill the room.
Counting down to Summer Solstice, I witnessed each passing day as the glare intruded… and, when Summer Solstice arrived, I counted…. knowing that each day that passed… that pervasive glare in our living room was relinquishing to the comfort of Winter Solstice .
In reverse… I counted the dreaded days from Winter Solstice and our reprieve to the arrival of Summer Solstice and the glare.
Then I started reminiscing about childhood lessons in geography and reeducated myself on the solstice phenomenon. As a reminder for those who have forgotten, the earliest sunrise happens a few days before our Northern Hemisphere’s Summer Solstice, and the latest sunset takes place a few days after our Northern Hemisphere’s Summer Solstice. This happens because of the imbalance between time measured using man made clocks and time measured by a sundial. Most clocks run on the idea that a day is exactly 24 hours. Technically, a day is the duration between one solar noon to the next.
I just love waking and checking the time of sunrise and sunset just after Summer Solstice. Did you realize that for almost two weeks only the sunrise changes? It becomes a minute later every two days… then sunset joins in the shift and loses its first minute. That is when things speed up. Yes, winter is approaching… there is no denying… there is no stopping…
Please share your own idiosyncrasy…
