Homage to Daylight
Although my wife likes to continue sleeping long past the moment when our part of the Earth begins once more to be showered with the rays from the Sun, long before dawn I am up and running. She shunts as many of her activities as she possibly can toward the night, while I try to do as much as I'm able during the day. In a shorter number of words, she is basically a night person, while I'm strictly a day person.
I don't know why she is that unfortunate way. I think my condition has to do with several things, especially my vision and my curiosity. At age 73 I can get along most of the time without glasses, but my eyesight sharpens noticeably as more light is thrown on the subject. Also I can see much better what is going on, rather than having to rely on deductions furnished by what I can hear. And in that respect I am glad that I didn't come of age a few years ago or even two or three decades ago, because I flatter myself that I can still hear better than many of you unlucky younger ones, who, in your early days, have had to endure so much fashionable eardrum-bursting music. Hi-fi wasn't so advanced, available, and injurious in the 1930's and '40's!
Most people, especially children, look forward to 25 December with high excitement. I couldn't be less interested. But I do eagerly anticipate another date a few days earlier, the 21st. That is the day of the winter solstice, marking the nadir of the Earth's relationship with the Sun, when the nights complete getting longer and longer at the expense of the days. From then on that process begins to be reversed, up till the very sad date of 21 June. (You can tell that I've been in the military Service. I still like their way of expressing dates better.)
Astronomically speaking, though not weather-wise as far as I can see, 21 December is called the first day of Winter, while 21 June is the first day of Summer. But to me the powers that be have that totally backwards. For me 21 December, when the minutes of sunlight begin six months of steadily getting more numerous and holding off the darkness, marks the beginning of the Summer, not the Winter.
I don't know why she is that unfortunate way. I think my condition has to do with several things, especially my vision and my curiosity. At age 73 I can get along most of the time without glasses, but my eyesight sharpens noticeably as more light is thrown on the subject. Also I can see much better what is going on, rather than having to rely on deductions furnished by what I can hear. And in that respect I am glad that I didn't come of age a few years ago or even two or three decades ago, because I flatter myself that I can still hear better than many of you unlucky younger ones, who, in your early days, have had to endure so much fashionable eardrum-bursting music. Hi-fi wasn't so advanced, available, and injurious in the 1930's and '40's!
Most people, especially children, look forward to 25 December with high excitement. I couldn't be less interested. But I do eagerly anticipate another date a few days earlier, the 21st. That is the day of the winter solstice, marking the nadir of the Earth's relationship with the Sun, when the nights complete getting longer and longer at the expense of the days. From then on that process begins to be reversed, up till the very sad date of 21 June. (You can tell that I've been in the military Service. I still like their way of expressing dates better.)
Astronomically speaking, though not weather-wise as far as I can see, 21 December is called the first day of Winter, while 21 June is the first day of Summer. But to me the powers that be have that totally backwards. For me 21 December, when the minutes of sunlight begin six months of steadily getting more numerous and holding off the darkness, marks the beginning of the Summer, not the Winter.
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