The darkest evening of the year. IPhone selfie. (c) DE Wolf 2015

I would like to express my contempt for those that each November plunge us into unwanted darkness. In their “infinite wisdom” (NOT) “they” end daylight savings time and we get to drive home in the dark. What a pain. Well this is it, Tonight in Boston December 8th along with tomorrow night, we have our earliest sunset. After that and until the solstice the duration of daylight continues to become shorter, but comes off at the other end with progressively later and later sunrises.

There I am in Figure 1 driving home (not driving at the instant of the selfie) with a displeased look of contempt on my face. My contempt is for “them.” And who are “they?” “They” are the members of the United States Congress and Senate. That should explain my contempt. This is not a very reliable or thoughtful group.

I must content myself with the fact that we will soon be on the ascendance. And, of course, there is a certain poetry to New England winters – to the sense they are to be conquered. I am reminded of the words of Robert Frost, the poem that I first read in elementary school “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening:”