Solstice

For the past few years, I've been paying attention to the length of the day. Not that I didn't know that "the days are getting longer" or "the days are getting shorter". I have always had a pretty good knowledge of the rotating planets and all that. But, the sense of the waxing and waning of the days of the year has gotten more important to me. It could be my age. The years seems to go by quickly, and as a younger person, I might not have had the patience to follow the tides of the days. But, this year it seemed important to mark the longest day of the year, which is also the beginning of the slow slide into winter. Doing something all day would have been physically taxing, and I'm much more of a night person. So, the idea of an all-night sunset-to-sunrise party seemed like a good idea.
We picked Saturday night, because it was close enough to the 21st to count, but we didn't have to go to work the following day. Sunset in Wenatchee is around 9:00pm and sunrise is around 5:00am. So, an eight hour party didn't seem like that much of an undertaking. People starting trickling in around sunset and we ate, and drank and talked outside under the wisteria. The weather was perfect, a warm summer night with no breeze and a bright moon. And we got a chance to catch up with friends that we have spent much time with lately. It was a really enjoyable time. However, after about 3:00 am, it was apparent that a total lack of activities and listening to far too much 'emo' music makes it very difficult to stay awake. People started nodding off, and by about 4:30 when the sky brightened and lit up the clouds, most everyone was asleep. A big shout out to Waikele for being the only person to stay up all night with me. At 5:00, we woke people up to see the sunrise, and then everyone headed off to get some sleep. It was a really good experience, but next year, I'll have to plan something for the 3:00 am timeslot to keep people awake.