It was raining quietly this morning when I got up, and now that I'm about ready to go to bed it is still raining.
When it is raining in the winter and we're under heavy cloud cover it is pretty dark around here. I noticed that this afternoon when I went to the supermarket and to the post office, and it was barely 4:00pm but already getting dark outside.
Of course, I'm no stranger to winter darkness, having been born and raised in Denmark which is even further north than we are here in Western Washington.
Not many people realize this, but where I grew up in Denmark was close to the same latitude as Juneau, Alaska...
When I was a kid, I remember it would be pretty well dark in the morning when I would get on the school bus, and it would also be getting close to dark when I was riding the school bus home at 3:30 in the afternoon.
The adults were always complaining bitterly about the darkness and the short days but we kids never minded too much having to play outside in the dark rather than in the light, and there were special "winter games" we played that meant that darkness was not really a drawback.
Besides, the streets in our neighborhood were pretty well illuminated, and since it was a quiet street we'd play football (soccer) under the lights till it was time for dinner.
All these years later — and when I say that we're talking about 50+ years! — I'm still not really bothered by the darkness. I know many of my peers are dreaming of escaping to Hawaii or Florida, but I'm not among them!
I imagine people who are not bothered by darkness in the winter probably feel that way because they tend to have numerous indoor hobbies and interests that aren't dependent on bright sunshine and it being dry outside.
With the holidays around the corner, back then we used to often be engaged in the quiet pastime of making Christmas ornaments. My mother, of course — being the great correspondent that she was — typically had over 100 Christmas cards to write, so she'd busy herself with that.
Sometimes I wonder if people still write Christmas cards. I suppose they do because they're available for sale in the stores, although you seldom see the boxed sets the way you did when I was a kid. I wonder if this is a tradition that will eventually die out completely and be replaced by sending each other TikTok reels of Christmas activities instead.
I find a certain comfort in being in a warm house when it is dark outside and I can hear the rain dripping from the roof nearby. Although I do have indoor hobbies, at the moment I'm mostly working on my artwork because this coming weekend is the first of our holiday shows for our creative stuff.
This year I'm a little worried about it's financial success because we could really use any extra money and at the same time I wonder if we're gonna sell anything given that everybody is affected by this rather sketchy economy at the moment. I suppose we'll know soon enough!
And the Cryptosphere certainly isn't going to be a source of funding this year... nor is 10-cent Hive!
There were Christmas trees outside the supermarket, and I was shocked by just how expensive they were!
$45 for a small tree, barely waist height; $75 for about a 6-foot tree and $95 for the biggest ones. When did that happen? And why are the prices of Christmas trees so inflated? After all, they don't have to be "manufactured" from raw materials... I guess everyone is getting in on the action of 20-50% price hikes!
Thanks for stopping by and have a great remainder of your week!
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Created at 2025.12.02 00:48 PST
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