December 22nd

Happy Winter Solstice!

My friend Gordon claims that this is the best day of the year. And since the amount of daylight will be increasing each day for the next six months, an optimistic person should be excited about what today brings.

During my junior high class introductions, we always cover the day, date, weather, temperature, season, and time. But the students figure all of that out quickly so it's nice to add other elements. One such bit I have added is teaching them about the solstices and equinoxes and how they mark the changing of the seasons (even though one of my English teachers claims that in Japan winter begins on December 1st (she's wrong)). So I really enjoy the glow in the eyes of the kid whom I ask 'what season is it?' and then he/she realizes that today is the 21st/22nd.

I ran from 5:15-6:30am today and it was all in the dark. As per solstice tradition, I'll try to catch the sunset tonight and undoubtedly get some star watching in as I return to make dinner. Here in Okinawa the sun rises at 7:12am and sets at 5:42pm. The weather page says tomorrow will be 2 seconds longer. Hurray!