18 December 2011
Baby, It's DARK Outside
18/12/11 10:18
OK, I worked at a planetarium. I understand about the winter solstice. (It’s the shortest day of the the year. The opposite is, of course, the summer solstice in June which would be the tallest day of the year.) It’s supposed to be dark. But I mean really. I’m getting up in the dark. I leave for work at 7:30 when it’s still dark. I work inside all day. I get home around 5:00, in the dark. This is exacerbated by clouds and fog that blocks light from the moon and stars. Even the streetlights seem subdued. Of course you in Minnesota have a nice coating of white snow to help keep what light you have moving around. Here we have wet moss and ferns and conifers that suck up light like a sponge.
It’s so dark that Marsha decorated the deck for Christmas and I didn’t notice for two days, at least that’s the excuse I’m using. It’s so dark that we went to the store on Sunday and I saw what the inside of my car looks like for the very first time. It’s so dark that the cats wait until I turn on the light before they go into a room. Then the light over my desk at work went out.
Even Batman would think it’s getting a bit too gloomy around here.
But remember this is the nadir, the bottom, the limit to how dark it can get. From here in until June it gets brighter. The days will get longer. This is why so many cultures have a winter solstice celebrations. To mark the dark time and get everyone ready for the longer days to come. Vancouver is having a bunch of events this week. http://www.insidevancouver.ca/2011/12/15/winter-solstice-lantern-festival-december-21-2011/ I think the one I’d like to see is the Lantern festival, where they make these labyrinths out of small candles in paper lanterns. http://www.secretlantern.org/index.html That sounds like it would be very pretty. But here on the island I don’t know of anything like that going on. I’ll probably follow the tradition passed down in my family for generations. The week before Christmas I curl up in the dark under a blanket and play a video game on my iPad where I crawl around in a dungeon killing things.
Well, maybe the tradition doesn’t go back that far.
I was thinking about the dark this week when I found out that one of the people at work commutes by boat. Not a ferry either. She keeps her own boat at the dock in Nanaimo and every night parks her car there and sails out to her house on one of the outlying small islands. The other morning she was complaining about how it was stormy and dark on the bay and a log raft had drifted out of position so she had to detour around it. Odder still she likes to work late. We all leave between 4:00 and 4:30 and she normally stays until almost 6:00. You know, back in Minnesota nobody ever did that. I never heard anyone using a log raft or the sea conditions as an excuse for being late before.
Toto, I think we're not in Minnesota any more.
But it is the week before Christmas. The air is full of cheer and good feelings and drivers smile as they flip you off. The radio is full of Christmas songs, the old classics, and the new ones done by artists that really are out of their depth. The thrash metal jingle bells I heard this week was really amazing. Not good mind you, just amazing that somebody would think it should have been recorded.Marsha found a video online of a kid from Winnipeg playing Little Drummer Boy playing on his drums in the snow and pictures of Winnipeg.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrNcD34KFhM&feature=youtu.be
She thinks it’s good. Me? Well, I’ll pass. Oh he probably does a good job and all but the premise of The Little Drummer Boy has always bothered me. I mean, even as a kid I would imagine the scene. You have Mary and the baby exhausted from labour, not to mention the hike across Palestine. They’ve already had to put up with a mob of shepherds wandering in and out of their room. A bunch of kings on camelback that came in without so much as a by your leave, (you know how kings are) and dropped off packages of stuff. The camels also left a gift behind. That plus this damn star is shining right in the window so it’s bright as day in there. They just want to try to get some sleep. Now some &!@#$!&** kid wants to come in and play his toy drum right next to the bed! Seriously kid? Take a hike. Come back when you learn a real instrument.
I don’t know why Marsha says I have a bad attitude this time of year.
But to conclude here’s a nice winter, not necessarily Christmas song. You might have heard this but I’m including it here anyway because we both like it. It’s a really cute reworking of the old jazz standard Baby It’s Cold Outside.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_SUVPPvjAA
Doug & Marsha
PIX: Rose sunset over the mountains and cats in the decorations.
It’s so dark that Marsha decorated the deck for Christmas and I didn’t notice for two days, at least that’s the excuse I’m using. It’s so dark that we went to the store on Sunday and I saw what the inside of my car looks like for the very first time. It’s so dark that the cats wait until I turn on the light before they go into a room. Then the light over my desk at work went out.
Even Batman would think it’s getting a bit too gloomy around here.
But remember this is the nadir, the bottom, the limit to how dark it can get. From here in until June it gets brighter. The days will get longer. This is why so many cultures have a winter solstice celebrations. To mark the dark time and get everyone ready for the longer days to come. Vancouver is having a bunch of events this week. http://www.insidevancouver.ca/2011/12/15/winter-solstice-lantern-festival-december-21-2011/ I think the one I’d like to see is the Lantern festival, where they make these labyrinths out of small candles in paper lanterns. http://www.secretlantern.org/index.html That sounds like it would be very pretty. But here on the island I don’t know of anything like that going on. I’ll probably follow the tradition passed down in my family for generations. The week before Christmas I curl up in the dark under a blanket and play a video game on my iPad where I crawl around in a dungeon killing things.
Well, maybe the tradition doesn’t go back that far.
I was thinking about the dark this week when I found out that one of the people at work commutes by boat. Not a ferry either. She keeps her own boat at the dock in Nanaimo and every night parks her car there and sails out to her house on one of the outlying small islands. The other morning she was complaining about how it was stormy and dark on the bay and a log raft had drifted out of position so she had to detour around it. Odder still she likes to work late. We all leave between 4:00 and 4:30 and she normally stays until almost 6:00. You know, back in Minnesota nobody ever did that. I never heard anyone using a log raft or the sea conditions as an excuse for being late before.
Toto, I think we're not in Minnesota any more.
But it is the week before Christmas. The air is full of cheer and good feelings and drivers smile as they flip you off. The radio is full of Christmas songs, the old classics, and the new ones done by artists that really are out of their depth. The thrash metal jingle bells I heard this week was really amazing. Not good mind you, just amazing that somebody would think it should have been recorded.Marsha found a video online of a kid from Winnipeg playing Little Drummer Boy playing on his drums in the snow and pictures of Winnipeg.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrNcD34KFhM&feature=youtu.be
She thinks it’s good. Me? Well, I’ll pass. Oh he probably does a good job and all but the premise of The Little Drummer Boy has always bothered me. I mean, even as a kid I would imagine the scene. You have Mary and the baby exhausted from labour, not to mention the hike across Palestine. They’ve already had to put up with a mob of shepherds wandering in and out of their room. A bunch of kings on camelback that came in without so much as a by your leave, (you know how kings are) and dropped off packages of stuff. The camels also left a gift behind. That plus this damn star is shining right in the window so it’s bright as day in there. They just want to try to get some sleep. Now some &!@#$!&** kid wants to come in and play his toy drum right next to the bed! Seriously kid? Take a hike. Come back when you learn a real instrument.
I don’t know why Marsha says I have a bad attitude this time of year.
But to conclude here’s a nice winter, not necessarily Christmas song. You might have heard this but I’m including it here anyway because we both like it. It’s a really cute reworking of the old jazz standard Baby It’s Cold Outside.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_SUVPPvjAA
Doug & Marsha
PIX: Rose sunset over the mountains and cats in the decorations.