“Stench of Short Days, Fridge Nights should still keep us Jolly”

    The delights of tripping over stinky boots, searching endlessly for foul jackets, and picking up the flashlight to let the dog out at 6 pm is upon us.  Welcome to Winter in the Midwest!  As November wraps up and December creeps in, we slowly forget those warm, mild summer nights and begin to see another asinine Winter ---whom will mock all winter apparel and equipment we may have. 

    What do you think of when we say the word Winter?  Most of us might think of snow; maybe shoveling or winter driving.  Others may see cold weather; breath being seen or fingers turning purple as the family car is not starting.  For myself, the biggest thing I miss is lack of sunlight and long, mild nights.  How depressing does it get when you go to work/school in the dark and you return from work/school in the dark?  What about the fact that the temperature is about the same when you get home at night then it was when you left that morning?!
   
    Beginning on December 1st, sunrise is at 7:04 am and sunset is around 4:18 pm ---that gives us a total of 9 hours and 14 minutes of sunlight!!!  I do complain about this BUT how about living in Barrow, AK right now?  A week ago (November 18th) they saw the last flicker of sunlight until January 23rd!  Imagine going two months without seeing any sunlight, sunrise, or sunset?!  On top of that their average temperatures in December are below zero and it only gets worse in January and early February.  Maybe that is why there are only 4,000 people that live there, most of them not by choice.

    What about Yakutsk, Russia, located about 300 miles south of the Arctic Circle, is the coldest city in the world.  It inhabits around 200,000 crazy, stubborn people who do not want to leave their city in search of warmer pastures.  Instead they choose to deal with temperatures that get so cold that their advised not to wear sunglasses on certain days because the friggen sunglasses freeze to their cheeks!  Back in 2008, Yakutsk was in the news after a chain of burst pipes caused Artyk and Markha, two villages near Yakutsk, to lose heat for a number of days. The temperatures then were minus 50C. TV footage of the BIG FREEZE showed cliques of people huddled in bundles of blankets gathering round makeshift wood-fired stoves to keep from freezing to death.  How about those apples?

    In January, when we are complaining in our own rights about Winter, remember Barrow, AK has not seen light in months, and Yakutsk gets to deal with average highs around -40 C!  Even though we think these short days, fridge nights are bad, perhaps here in the Midwest during Winter we should still stay jolly!!!