A slice of near-Solstice sun for Dogamous Pyle

/ June 20, 2015

One day from the Summer Solstice in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood, and Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle knows exactly where to go on her 7 a.m. get-out into the backyard of the Little Bitty.

Doobie

Doobie

Doobie

Doobie

Doo

Doo

Let there be light, indeed.

Lots of light.

According to the charts in The Post-Standard, our sun rose at 5:25 a.m. today, and will again on the Solstice Sunday, June 21. On Monday and Tuesday, the sun will actually hang around an extra minute, not setting until 8:48 p.m.

That’s 15 hours, 23 minutes of daylight. Yes, I did use my fingers to count here at home.

Wednesday we start swinging the other way and lose a minute, I hate to say, with the sun turning stubborn and not coming up until 5:26 a.m. Ellie B and I will worry about that then.

Do you note the Solstice where you live, and if so, how? Do you get up earlier when the sun’s out longer and hibernate like a bear when it’s not? How does the sun affect your personality?

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91 thoughts on “A slice of near-Solstice sun for Dogamous Pyle”

  1. The sun here is too hot, so I tend to stay inside when it’s out. Though I admit, when I lived in NY, it did set a little too early for my taste. But it was more enjoyable to be outside there because there was no humidity and it wasn’t blinding.

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  2. Completely slipped my mind! I’d thought about it last week and then with all the Father’s Day ruckus, hadn’t thought that we just had the longest day. Light is happiness, no? But then dark can be good, too.

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  3. I like having the long days, although we did not have a particularly sunny solstice. In the dark of the winter solstice all I want to do is stay in bed under the blankets. I hate waking up in the dark and then I feel like it’s bedtime at 5 PM.

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  5. The sun, you say? Pray tell, what is this mysterious orb of which you speak? Does it only come out during the daytime, when us night people are hunkered in our beds? Why doesn’t it come out an introduce itself to me? Excuse me, I have to take my Vitamin D supplement now…

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  6. You’d better buh–leeve the sun affects me brother Mark. Today it’s out bright and early, as if it too wants to celebrate this longest day of the year. We’ve had bad weather and alerts for several days, but today we have sunshine and smiles. Maybe I can make even more headway in boxing up the things I want to move down the hall with me. And maybe I’ll just use my chair to destroy a few things I need out of the way, that are too big for me to move on my own. Give Ellie B. an extra treat in honor of this longest day of the year, and tell her it was my idea — pleeze?

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  8. Listening to the wind whistling down my lum* as I prepared for the morning’s walk on this midsummer’s morn, I decided on donning a thick fleece before reaching for the dog leads. I should have added a hat and gloves! Not much evidence of sun or summer behind the clouds. I noted with interest Paul’s comment that the earth is closest to the sun in February, which must explain some unseasonably warm days we’ve had during that month, even in the cold north.

    Hope you find plenty of midsummer sun today.

    Oh, and *lum is an old Scottish word for chimney.

    Roy

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    • Well, Roy, I think our actions to Earth over centuries have something to do with mixed-up weather patterns now as well as nature’s course these days.

      Sigh.

      To report back: yesterday’s morning sun gave way to clouds here as well, and our baseball game in the early eve forced us to sit through several periods of light drizzle. Which we did, in 70º F. Today, the Summer Solstice, my daughter, George’s Three and Two and I have nine holes of later afternoon golf planned for Father’s Day after a movie and Polish food at the local festival. But, gray with rain forecast again. Yet, no wind whistling down my lum. Happy Father’s Day, my Liverpudlian friend.

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      • yes, we have messed up our weather patterns – (can we have our gulf stream back, please) my dad is being taken for a picnic in the park by my sister – I shall be visiting hi next month for his birthday – and he has requested another picnic in the park. Happy Father’s Day to you – sounds like a packed day – golf, a movie and a food festival. have a great day

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      • Thanks, Roy. We loved the movie and the food fest, but I called off the golf because of rain and wet, saying I prefered to save it for a sunny Sunday instead. 🙂

        I’m glad to hear your dad gets your sis today and you next month on his birthday. Very well done. 🙂 Happy Father’s Day to you, my friend.

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  9. Since it is so damn hot nowadays,sun leads me to want to be closed up in my house all day without the need to get out.But…*sighs*
    You get what I am saying,don’t you?*expectant raise of eyebrows*
    Or maybe I am not making any sense.-.-

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  10. I love the sun, especially the first rays in the morning and ruby rays of the descending sun as it drops below the Sequoias. Here is thing that puzzles me….How is it my saltwater fish know when it is 5:00pm on the dot (despite Daylight Savings, Solstices and all that other stuff) and swim at the top of the tank waiting for their food? How does my Great Dane get off his futon and exactly 6:55 every night – Winter or Summer, to come get us going with his dinner? Animals are amazing!!!!

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  12. I love the sun. Had a very hard time living in Portland, OR and Seattle during years when for nine months every year we had sun about one day a month, then slightly more for a while, then six weeks of sunny summer before cloudy mists took over again… (It was an end-of-drought time that included Mt. St. Helen blowing up and El Nino, both creating heavy rain patterns…)
    I loved living in the Bay area, just outside the fog zone, and enjoying sun most of the time about 9 months a year — and that there was even a lot of sun during the rainy season. I’ve also always been a night owl (my mother corroborates, from day 1 🙂 ) so I LOVE the long summer days and daylight savings time. I can stay up late and sleep late and still enjoy plenty of hours of sunshine.

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    • You have lived in interesting places, night owl Leigh. I still recall your France stories and your impeccable accent. 🙂 The Bay area and a lot of sunshine interests me. Usually I equate that to a lot of fog.

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      • Even the city, if you know the fog pattern, has areas, like Bernal Heights, where the sun shines a lot. There’s actually a regular pattern to the fog so people who’ve lived there long enough know where to be, in and out of the city, if they want to be in more sun–or some actually want the fog. All of it occasionally gets socked in, but most of the Peninsula, the East Bay and big chunks of Marin are all pretty sunny. And not as hot as southern CA. Perfect for me.

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  13. Your sun rises a lil earlier and sets a lil later than ours, which makes total sense 🙂
    I love sunlight in the morning. In the evening, it confuses me a lil, late to make dinner, since the sky is bright, and then strangely, feels earlier to bed, because it’s sometimes still twilight when we retreat for the day…
    I totally hibernate in summer. LOL worse than winter. I can’t take the heat, but I don’t mind the cold. Fortunately, we do as a family get out more in the summer 🙂

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    • You are such an interesting study, Joey, in all seasons. 🙂 I’m up wide-eyed too many hours now and I’m the sleepy bear in winter, such a stereotype. Except for last night, when after MDW Karen and I knocked off a bottle of 19 Crimes red blend together with our pizza and antipasta dinner I suddenly fell asleep on my recliner from 9:30 to 11:30 p.m. 🙂

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  16. I don’t note it but I have to tell you that where I live, it’s sunny until midnight in the summer. We have to darken our rooms or go into a darker room in the evening so our bodies get the message that’s it’s night time and we can get sleepy.

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  19. Here I am for the week’s worth of catch up, Mark!
    I am glad to have longer days and your photos are sure fun to see. Love Ellie B’s concentration while checking everything out.
    Shadows and light give us balance in our days. We should be grateful our days aren’t like up in Alaska. I could not take it on those bleak days of no sun. I would possibly go into a depression. Not kidding. I need my Sun! 🙂

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  20. June 20, Los Angeles: Sunrise: 5:42 AM/Sunset: 8:07 PM. I envy you those extra minutes of daylight! I remember from childhood in England being at the beach at 9:00pm in daylight!

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  22. I kind of like waking up in the dark but I always found something exciting about it staying light into night time, especially when I was a kid and played outside. My son, creature of the darkness that he is, already dislikes it.

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    • Wow. Already a night person. When I was a teen, I stayed up until at least 2 a.m. every day listening to my stereo, and was on cruise control until noon.

      Easier at home, believe it or not, Marissa. My first two years away at college, my friends would throw pebbles at my second-floor dorm window to wake me up to go to breakfast and our morning classes.

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      • YAY!!! Go see what it is all about!! You will have a blast, Mark. I am. I am pulling things out of me I didn’t know were there!!! GRIN!!! I am like a KID with this challenge, and I normally do not do challenges. LOL I am just so excited you said yes!!!! (((HUGS))) Amy ❤

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  26. I do like the long sunny days. It has always struck me as odd that the longest day of the year is not in the hottest part of our year – August. Actually, the Earth is closest to the sun in February – I suppose that’s why summer in the southern hemisphere is hotter than in the northern. This is my favorite time of year with long days, lots of sun but not too much heat. This morning it is about 65 degrees,calm winds and bright sunshine – perfect.

    Great photos Mark – that is the exact feeling – Doobie, doobie, do.

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    • I had to break out the line from Francis Albert Sinatra, Paul, because the feeling was in my soul! Exactly what you said.

      Promo alert: Come back tomorrow, Father’s Day Sunday, to read Paul’s guest post The Chief, a sweet reflection on his life with his dad.

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