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Longer days make winter shorter

VickiRanch
My father used to say, “The days are pulling out,” at this time of the year when we finally see more hours of daylight, the sun now coming up soon after 7:30 a.m. and not slipping back below the horizon until after 5:30 p.m.

The additional hours, a big improvement from when the sun finally peeked out not long before 9 a.m. and headed back to bed just a minute or two before 4 p.m., make us less inclined to want to do likewise. It seems much more doable to go to work or school bright and early when it is bright and early, rather than pitch dark, and when you know you’ll be on your way home while it’s still daylight.

Suddenly, we’re less than three weeks from Daylight Saving Time, which will have us getting up before the 7:54 a.m. sunrise once again, but will be eating supper without the lights turned on, with sunset not until 7:16 p.m.  I’ve been told that the whole idea of Daylight Saving Time was so people could enjoy longer evenings outdoors, but unless they wish to go skiing or snowshoeing, or shovel out their driveway, a month later might have done just as well. However, it will certainly be nice to head off to evening meetings and functions in broad daylight, and to know we’ll be able to do that for the next seven months, before the days shrink into early darkness.

Longer days make us think that spring is not far off, although sometimes it takes an agonizingly long time for the hoped-for spring weather to arrive.  Every sunny day makes us more hopeful, even when the temperature is well below freezing, and even snowy days don’t seem quite as bad when it’s daylight longer.

Thinking spring brings expectations of good times to come – camping trips, fishing from a boat rather than a pail on an ice-covered lake  - by the way, it’s only three months today until Victoria Day! – and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over a campfire.

It also reminds us of all the work that awaits us under the snow. For the farmers, there are crops to try and harvest, so they can get the 2020 crop into the ground, and the cattle out to pasture. For the gardeners, there is all of last year’s garden debris to remove before the tulips, day lilies and perennials start to take over the garden, and we have to move on to weeding and planting and weeding some more.

Perhaps we all ought to take it easy while we can! Or can we? No, there are things we must do before then… like the income tax. Wouldn’t our accountants be surprised if we brought in everything in early March, sorted, written down and added up, rather than showing up the last week of April with a stuffed shoebox of bills in no apparent order? Those of us who do our own know perfectly well we have to get it done by April 30, so why do we tend to ignore its existence until we have to burn the midnight oil to get it ready to mail? Just human nature, I guess, but by then, we really might be able to get outdoors in the evening, rather than sweating it out over the account books.

And don’t forget, we have to get ready for Easter, and track down the best chocolate bunnies and our favourite flavor of cream-filled eggs before they’re all gone. We’ll be eating our Shrove Tuesday pancakes in just one week, and then it’s only 40 days until we need to get those bunnies ready to eat for Easter breakfast. What other day of the year can you munch on chocolate bunny ears at 8 a.m., Mountain Daylight Time, without feeling guilty?

So, what else should we do while we wait for spring, tulips and snow-free gardens and fields to arrive? Well, we can watch ‘Survivor’ and keep tabs on the NHL to see who will make it into the Stanley Cup playoffs. We can start stocking up on necessities to load in the RV, pick out garden seeds and get the tomatoes and marigolds started. Time’s a-wasting!

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