This is it. The longest days of the year. Pete said that there is no difference in the amount of daylight/darkness until the 21st, which is the solstice. This means that there is really no difference in the amount of daylight/darkness from today, the 19th, until December 24, the day before Christmas.

Others feel as I do, which is that darkness is a force to be reckoned with. What comes to mind is how people string lights on their houses and trees and property. There is one place on Buffalo Mine Road with lights all over the place. They change color. Like other passerby, I wonder how they found the time to assemble this set up.

In Portland, there’s Peacock Lane, where all the houses are lit up. It has become a local tourist attraction (no oxymoron there) – I remember going and checking it out one year with my mother and sister.

I also remember the year I was in graduate school when we both were on break. We decided in a very spontaneous fashion to drive from Milwaukee, WI to Portland, OR. It became the tour of lights – they were everywhere. Some decorated those large irrigation sprinkler systems. And someone decorated a by the side of road school bus

I suspect that outdoor lights cause the pupils to dilate, and this has an effect on the sympathetic nervous system. Humans weren’t meant to dwell in darkness.

I know that the darkness prompts people to eat more sweet things. Me, I have cut back this year. It’s very difficult. For example, I think, there’s a cookie. Gotta have it. Gotta have two. I’ll take three.

I don’t like driving in the dark. Correction. I hate driving in the dark. When I can, I carpool with Pete. Today I drove my car home – it was just getting dark at 3:30 p.m. I sit low in the seat, so its hard to see around snow berms. I nearly drove into one, as I was turning onto the Glenn Highway. I think I will get a phonebook or other object to sit on. The berms, though they are white, they are hard to see.

The car does have good lights and does not slip around. For this I am grateful.

I do wish I lived in a place where I lived closer to town, that is a place that was bicycle friendly. This is what I liked so much about living in Fairbanks.

Natalie, a BLBP volunteer, rode her fat tired bicycle to the Eagle Hotel today. She parked it in the former banquet room. She lives in Palmer, said that she got in a six mile ride. I envy her this. She has a reflective coat and has lights.

It was just getting dark when I got home today. I ran out and cleaned the horse pen, at the last minute putting on and turning on my headlight. As I cleaned up, I wondered what effect the lack of light has on horses. For instance, do their metabolisms slow down? Do they sleep more? Do they lie down more? Do they eat more slowly? Questions continue to abound.

Next: 348. 12/20/23: The Writing Life: Looking for Answers