The shortest day, and SAD

Today is “hump day” in the seasonal sense – the day when we get the least sunlight of the year. Winter Solstice, the exact time when Whitehorse is leaning farthest away from the sun, occurs at 10:08 tonight. The sun will rise above the horizon today (and tomorrow because of the late-hour Solstice) at 10:09, and dip below it at 3:47. The further you get from the equator, the longer the twilight periods are, though, and we get almost 2 hours of twilight on each side of those times. That means that the incredibly beautiful pastel colours so common in the winter sky are visible for lengthy periods of time.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a problem for many people, some to a serious degree. I’m affected to a fairly strong degree, and am sitting under a SAD therapy light as I write this. I find that a tanning booth is also an effective energizer and mood enhancer, and I may be heading down to Better Bodies before the day is out.