Darkest day of the year

Just 4 hours and 10 minutes of daylight here today, on the winter solstice. Although if it is cloudy like yesterday, it’ll probably be dim enough for a lamp all day.

Today the sunrise is at 11:11am and the sunset is at 3:21pm. I won’t actually see the sun unless I leave town or climb the hill that is blocking us from its glow though.

Tomorrow we gain back 16 seconds of daylight 🎉

But then things start picking up. By Christmas we’ll be gaining over a minute of daylight a day. By January 6th, it’s up to over 4 minutes a day. By the end of February, we’ll be gaining 6.5 minutes a day, and we’ll be back up to over 10 hours of daylight a day.

March is when the big change happens. Due to the start of daylight savings time, by the end of March, the sun will be setting after 9pm.

Life in the darkness

This time of year I avoid bright light. I light the house with dim night lights and Christmas lights. I’d rather just turn the light on from the stove exhaust fan overhang, than the big bright one in the middle of the ceiling that lights the entire room. My bright monitors burn my eyes.

In the summer when it is light all the time, I sleep way less. In the winter I rarely get less than 8 hours of sleep. Here’s a recent screenshot of my Fitbit sleep tracker:

Photos from a walk

It is milder this week. I was able to duck out of work for an hour to get a good walk in on Monday before lunch. Here’s the sunrise in the 11 o’clock hour.

The Fitbit just doesn’t track the effort of walking with several layers of clothes, big winter boots, slugging away through loose snow 😆. An hour walk and just under 5,000 steps 😞

I walked on the lower dyke, on the snowmobile trail for some of of my walk. It’s a little more packed down, but still not effortless.

When I took the above photo, I could hear the roar of a snowmobile coming across from West Dawson. They have a trail up river to cross where it is frozen.

Dog sleds use this trail too! Here’s one below tied up along Front Street.

The Yukon River is still wide open in front of town. After 2 weeks of -40°C, it just isn’t going to freeze. It’s frozen up and down river, but with no ice chunks flowing, and with the brisk river current, I just can’t see a road going in this year. I thought it was freezing on the sides, but I think the water level is just so low now, the snowy sides is frozen gravel.

Tonight

Our town’s Christmas Boat Parade is tonight! That’s when everyone decorates their boats and pulls them on trailers around town 😃. So much fun! There will be a bonfire first along the waterfront.

Tomorrow our Chinese restaurant is having a buffet dinner before they close for the holidays. We’ll probably go, and celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary 😍.