Countdown to the Winter Solstice

Kinda like watching paint drying, ain't it?

I'm north and I'm east, we are on the east side of the time zone, sunset is at like 4:00 right around the solstice........

this song always reminds me of the winter solstice for some reason

The Coldest Night Of The Year
Bruce Cockburn

I was up all night, socializing
Trying to keep the latent depression from crystalizing
Now the sun is lurking just behind the Scarborough horizon

And you're not even here
On the coldest night of the year.

I took in Yonge Street at a glance
Heard the punkers playing
Watched the bikers dance
Everybody wishing they could go to the south of France

And you're not even here
On the coldest night of the year.

Hey look at me now
See the shape I'm in
It's taken me so long to catch on to what's going on
Inside this skin
When two lovers really love there's nothing there
But this suddenly compact universe
Skin and breath and hair

I watched the all night TV show
In the all night bar
I drove all the people home
I was the one with the car

Now I'm sitting here alone and sleepless
and wondering where you are
And wishing you were here
On the coldest night of the year

A Long December - Counting Crows

A long December and there's reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last
I can't remember the last thing that you said as you were leaving
Now the days go by so fast

And it's one more day up in the canyons
And it's one more night in Hollywood
If you think that I could be forgiven...I wish you would

The smell of hospitals in Winter
And the feeling that it's all a lot of oysters, but no pearls
All at once you look across a crowded room
To see the way that light attaches to a girl

And it's one more day up in the canyons
And it's one more night in Hollywood
If you think you might come to California...I think you should

Drove up to Hillside Manor sometime after two AM
And talked a little while about the year
I guess the Winter makes you laugh a little slower,
Makes you talk a little lower about the things you could not show her
And it's been a long December and there's reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last
I can't remember all the times I tried to tell my myself
To hold on to these moments as they pass

And it's one more day up in the canyon
And it's one more night in Hollywood
It's been so long since I've seen the ocean...I guess I should

I'm so demoralized, I'm factually inaccurate.

Come the 21st, the sun will be over the Tropic of Capricorn.

It will be over the equator on the Equinox in March.

Today--9 hours and 16 minutes of daylight.

Illumination is sorely needed in these parts.

I can't seem to find your other thread, but yes, I'm another one who doesn't deal well with short days and lack of sun.

It was dark (as separate from when the sun went down) at 5 yesterday. FIVE! That ain't right.

I have remarked before that I like the holiday season because the lights and evergreens and gaiety give me a respite from the dark and drear, and then by the time it's over the days are getting longer again.

When I was growing up, the end of the holiday season meant hanging in until spring break and visiting my grandma in Florida. The sunshine and balmy breezes held me until spring properly sprung. I have a favorite cousin who has been trying to get me to visit for many years, maybe sozlet and I will start a new annual tradition...

Yesterday was a celebration day - my favorite day of the year. It's the day that we officially gain one minute on the earliest sunset. The days will still get shorter overall until the soltice, but sunset has turned around and is getting later. Sunrise doesn't turn back until January 11th (we still have 10 minutes to lose before latest sunrise), but I'll take it on the back end of the day.

9 hours, 10 minutes.

Yesterday through no fault of my own I had to drive home in the twilight. The experience was most demoralizing.

First thing this morning, I called and rescheduled two medical appointments. Each of them would be safe if All Went Well, but....

At five in the afternoon, a Good Woman should be able to see the horizon. That won't be possible in these latitudes until January.

Just a fellow sun and light preferrer here, saying I'm with you on this one.

I did see a kickass sunrise the other day. Magenta painted across an aqua sky.

JPB--

Thanks for the factual nugget. Information illuminates.


Reyn--

Watching paint dry? No. More like accomplishing the last long, long days of pregnancy.

Today I'll have 9 hours, 9 minutes of daylight--filtered through a heavy cloud cover with occasional drizzling rain.

Other people can also suffer. I'm all for share-the-misery threads.

Anyone interested in tracking their sunrise and sunset data can generate a yearly chart HERE

For my location, we will have 9 hours, 6 minutes on Dec 21 and 15 hours, 16 minutes on June 21, 2007. mmmmmmm, June.......

JPB--

Thanks for the website. I do my calculations from the weather report in the daily newspaper, just in case the Laws of the Universe change suddenly and no one else notices.

December 14, 2006. Nine hours and 14 minutes of daylight.

At least the sun is shining.

Saturday, December 16.

Nine hours and fourteen minutes of daylight.

People who pre-paid their heating oil this year weren't particularly provident. The warm weather has kept the demand for oil low.

Ruffed grouse are scavenging in the pear orchard.

2006 Dec 21 19:22:05.0 EST
(Ecliptic longitude of the Sun..270 00 00.0)

Here it is, Noddy24 - the Winter Solstice! First day of Winter, and the beginning of increasingly longer days!

Yippee!!!

Ututuh, not until somewhere around 7:20 pm. That is the official winter solstice.

In Boston: on Dec 21, 2006 the sun rises at 7:10 AM and sets at 4:15 PM giving 9h 04m 47s of (so-called) sunlight.

This is 03 seconds less light than yesterday. Tomorrow, there will be exactly the same amount of light as there was today. Saturday will have a 05 second longer daytime! The days start getting longer on my birthday!