The Dark

It has begun. The dark I mean. You can really feel it now.

It's amazing how fast the time change happens here. Sunset, for instance, occurs about 5 minutes earlier each night. I was momentarily in Ontario about 2 weeks ago and our time was definitely the same, but within the last 2 weeks, you can feel the difference. Officially, sunrise today is at 8:34 and sunset is at 18:59 (6:59 pm). It is about 8:20 am as I write and there is definite light over the mountains, but the street lights are still on.

The real difference still, or at least so far, is the completeness of the dark. The dark blankets the earth and it is extremely difficult to see more than a foot or so in front of you. Your eyes can adjust, but the darkness is so complete that any glimpse of other light (such as from a car or streetlamp), immediately interferes with your eyes. For anyone who has lived in any urban or remotely inhabited space, it is difficult to comprehend how absolutely encompassing the darkness is.

Living in a basement means that we get that much less of the pre-sunrise and post-sunset light than most people. I have been surprised how this has alternately not at all affected what time I get up in the morning (weekdays, when I have things to do) and facilitated sleeping in, sometimes rather dramatically (weekends). For Mike and Maui, it is creating even more incentive to stay in bed and can be a bit disarming in the absence of an alarm clock to discover just how late it is.

This, of course, has not been helped by a week of Ontario-like weather. The rather grey days, has created beautiful white mountain tops, but has done nothing for my general disposition!

The upside to all of this darkness is the rather spectacular star gazing and, of course, the northern lights (which I still haven't seen). It also makes it a whole lot easier to not feel guilty about relaxing. Reading a book, playing a game, watching a movie - what else is a girl to do?