Super Saturday Dawns with the Solstice

The last shopping Saturday before Christmas has dawned with warm temperatures and the promise of rain and the inevitable last minute dash to finalize plans for the coming holiday.

Coupled with this it is also the solstice. The shortest amount of daylight in the northern hemisphere of the year. I remember a few years ago traveling to the Tropic of Capricorn and straddling it for a few minutes thinking of the solstice, one day per year when the sun makes it southernmost journey and is directly overhead. I wish I were there today--enjoying warmth and daylight. The local weather station is reporting 9 hours and 24 minutes of expected sunlight today. All, of course, obscured by heavy gray rain-laden clouds. Today will have three more minutes of sunlight--we have officially turned the corner on the darkness.

And then, after saying the official good-bye to autumn, we gather ourselves and joining the newly dawned winter season soar into Christmas.

It should be a busy week. And it will be lighter, longer every day.

Spring is just about 91 days away! The grass will return, the leaves with blanket the trees and flowers will bloom.

But first, Christmas!

Ho, ho, ho.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD