Maine Folks Depressed By Darkness, Save this Date on the Calendar

As much as I love the fall, it's the beginning of the end.

It's funny, the days start getting shorter, literally on the first day of summer. When the solstice rolls around, the days start shrinking. It's ironic that time of year we look forward to the most is actually the beginning of the end. Of course, it happens so slowly at first, we don't even notice they're getting shorter, then it's like someone flicked a switch.

For folks with seasonal depression issues, big or small, the shorter days can be cumbersome. I usually play this game with myself where I just kind of ignore winter and focus on May 1st. I choose that date because typically all the snow is gone by May. That helps me get through the cold and snowy weather.

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Along the same lines, there's another reason to look forward to Valentine's Day.

With the winter solstice being just a couple weeks ago, we're all counting the days until we sunrises and sunsets at the normal times. So I decided to look it up online and see if I could calculate when the  sun would once again set after 5:00pm. I feel like once we hit that 5:00pm mark, all seems a little better in the world.

When you have a job that guarantees you see darkness on at least one end of your commute year-round, it's nice to look forward to a time when you start to expand the ends of that situation. So on Valentine's Day 2024, the sun will officially set at 5:01pm, according to TimeAndDate.com.

By the time we hit March 16th just a month later, we'll be at the 12 & 12 point. On that day, the sun will rise at 6:44am and then set at 6;44pm. From that point, the days will begin to move outward in both directions and we'll really be headed for summer. But until then my friends... Just keep looking forward to Valentine's Day for a whole different reason.

You could also just try and think some warm weather thoughts to mkae things a wee bit better...