That would be today, the summer solstice here in the benighted northeast. Yes, I know you pasty natives celebrate by putting on plaid pants and heading for the golf course, but for those of us who grew up in more civilized parts of the country closer to the equator (southern California, Hawaii), there’s something incredibly depressing about this day, and it’s this:
From this afternoon onward to nearly Christmas, the days grow shorter. Visibly, viscerally shorter.
That’s true everywhere in the northern hemisphere, of course; it’s just that up here in New England the swing is more pronounced and the weather is commensurately worse. We move smartly from bleak winter to mud season to mosquito season to the two weeks of leaf-peeping that help us sell our houses to the next generation of suckers, and then back again. Things are even worse in Europe (ask someone from Finland how the young Finns celebrate today, before heading off into their darkness-induced funk), but that’s their problem.
And it’s not like we make it up on the back end. We’ve already been jobbed out of two months of potentially good weather, with April and May total washouts. Now June’s almost had it, which leaves only July and August — and you know how pleasant they can be! — before we all start singing that September Song. The fun hasn’t even begun and it’s already over.
Bah, humbug. I think I’ll start my Christmas shopping…
I'm with you, although I live in North Florida. The days are going to get shorter, though it's hard to tell because the smoke from all of the wildfires in South Georgia and North and Central Florida are blotting out the sun, which is just a "bright spot in night time". After Independence Day, it stars to get depressing until the start of football season (College, Pro, whatever...).
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOne word to make it all better: BRUINS!!!!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou could always visit Texas... we're getting a short respite from 100+ degree weather here in Austin. Today it'll only be 99!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHey, it may even rain in Houston the next couple of days!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHey Walsh -- I think Derb #hacked! your Corner posting account.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseContrast this "Saddest Day of the Year" with the best part of Detroit - the absolute center. No matter which way you're facing, you're leaving.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHah! This native Detroiter appreciates that.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis reminds me of how, although I live for the weekend, my favorite night is Thursday night, because it's almost the weekend. By Friday night, the weekend is almost over. By Saturday night, sadness has already set in.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHave you ever considered a career in motivational speaking?
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Up here in New England ..."
Save your whining. Upstate NY has far worse winters than anything most New Englanders experience, with two lakes causing massive snows which combine with Nor'easters from Canada to produce accumulations akin to snow-making machines.
And today is the first day of summer after one of the harder winters in recent memory (because the Earth is getting WARMER!). The good weather just started, and I'm supposed to contemplate the end of it?
I guess people in New England have the luxury of complaining about winter on the first day of summer. Up here, I can only fathom some worn out phrase about gift horses and mouths.
And we get, like, 20 days of sun per year. We are up to 7 right now. So that means I have 13 sunny days to look forward to, and look forward I will.
None of my summery optimism, however, precluded me from recently purchasing a new pair of red and steel blue muckalucks!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYankee Social Sport: Arguing over who's more miserable.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseTell me about it: I spent ten years in Rochester.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAdding heat to the atmosphere is equivalent to adding energy. As the earth heats up we'll experience more intense weather events - be they draughts, blizzards, flooding, or spring storms.This is why we have "hard winters" in the midst of increasing global temperature averages.
I hope this has cleared up the "global warming = harder winter" paradox of nature for you. If you'd like more info on how the greenhouse effect works, you might want to enroll in a 6th grade science class.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat grade does one have to complete to *effectively* fudge sea-level data?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJust guessing here, but of the ten thousand things that affect climate to one degree or another, it might be more complicated than 6th grade science.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs for education, forty or fifty years of studying human nature and a rule of always 'follow the money' if you want to understand something can be helpful too.
This the best day of the year as far as I'm concerned. It means this unpleasant warm weather is going away soon. Nothing better than crisp autumn days followed by a hard New England winter.
It is no accident that the least civilized people gather near the equator.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe fading sunshine used to make me sad (literally - I have Seasonal Affective Disorder), but now I take Vitamin D for that. >.>
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHey, thanks for the reminder. I forgot to take my Fish Oil/Vitamin D3 pills today.
Not that I minded forgetting... :)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFinnish roommate explains to me there is lots of dancing & singing to the old gods and that all her friends go swimming naked in the lake. Doesn't sound so bad to me, other than all that old gods stuff.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseTake up skiing. No skier would ever write this.
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