sólstöður / solstice

Well today was the Big Day. I've been secretly keeping an eye on how far off this day was, all the while pretending with some machismo/braggadocio that the dark wasn't bothering me. And now that it's here it's a bit of a letdown:
1) There's not much to *see* on the solstice. Nothing really crazy *happens*. It's kind of just another workaday day.
2) It never really got completely dark. I mean, we've been making all this progress recently toward an endless night, and now we're just throwing it all away...!

Some stats:

sunrise 11:22 am
sunset 3:29 pm

4 hours and change. And let me remind you, or try to convey to you, that those 4 hours are not some kind of Jamaican-style beach party. Those are 4 hours of wan, extremely wan, greyness. Today was raining pretty hard and so at noon when i walked down the hill to lunch the sky overhead was the color and luminescence of a badly tarnished teaspoon. Then it started to get dark.

Tomorrow's sunrise, at 11:21 am, can't come a minute too soon.