Winter Has Arrived

In case any of you pholks haven't noticed, winter has officially arrived.

Sure, I know we've had cold weather, rain and even a few flakes of snow on the Valley floor. And the snowpack on the majestic Sierra still counts even if it ain't officially winter snow. We ain't giving it back.

But what's most important, in my book (the one I'm still writing, of course), is that the shortest day of the year came and went this week. That means days are getting longer, and, more importantly, baseball spring training is just about two months away. Spring training, of course, opens before the actual arrival of spring. But calendars are among the few things which I refuse to be regulated by except bills being due. If it feels like spring, it's spring. If it rains and snows or gets below 40 degrees, it's winter. As far as calendars are concerned, it's all about photos. Cats, dogs, exotic, classic and collectable cars, seascapes, national parks and hundreds of other pictures are great things for calendars. Putting numbers on calendars is necessary, I guess, but we all know which days follow one another. Occasionally, we all need to match up the days with dates, which, I admit, happens more than it used to.

But back to these longer days which eventually will stretch into mid-June when the longest one arrives. And remember pholks, we have Daylight Savings Time coming up in a couple months making things even better.

Don't get me wrong, I like winter, at least a little because I can wear my sweaters which have been lurking in the dresser drawers for quite a while, can watch football and a little bit of basketball and a few other sports on television. And colder weather makes drinking really hot chocolate and really hot soup activities to look forward to, especially in the evening. And, if I have some really nice photo calendars depicting warm locations, golf courses and even sparkling beaches, even without bikini-clad ladies, I can check out the numbers and make tentative plans for what I would like to be doing if I could afford it.

I split the year into two basic categories, long days and short days. Long days generally have more daylight, unless there are unusual weather conditions, than the shorter ones.

Let me make it clear, I have plenty to do besides just keeping track of the length of each day and the amount of sunlight.

In case any of you pholks want a more scientific explanation about this shortest day thing, I did just an itsy bitsy bit of research. I googled “First Day of Winter” to refresh my recollection of winter solstice. Due to my endurance and survival of three years of high school Latin, I knew that Solstice was in reference to the sun and literally means “sun stands still.” The sun's arc through the sky, as viewed by us earthlings, appears to stabilize with the rise and setting in the same two places for several days. And although I already knew it, it was reassuring to realize that throughout history, mankind has celebrated the winter solstice with celebrations and other activities to mark the occasion. Monuments and other structures were built over the centuries including some engineered to capture the sunlight at the exact moment of Solstice.

The Romans' feast of Saturnalia to honor the god Saturn was a weeklong December feast including the observance of the winter solstice. The Romans also marked the lengthening of days by paying homage to Mithra, an ancient Persian god of light.

Of course the Romans and other ancient cultures didn't have satellite dishes or cable and couldn't get gladiator challenges, chariot races or football games during the winter so they had to have something to pass winter hours.
Pagans did their thing and today a number of groups around the world do their thing.

Anyway pholks, let's just enjoy these upcoming longer days and maybe, just maybe, lots of things will get brighter in the new year, in lots of ways.