The days are getting more longerer, fasterer

Before the Great Displeasant Winter of 2025-6, I would have said that I don't mind the cold of this season as much as I hate the sunsets that arrive long before afternoon is over with.

Here, during the middle of the GDWo25-6…it's a push. These past few days have been the first in weeks with temps higher than the low Twenties. I've been so beaten down by it always being ten degrees below freezing that I got out of the shower on Tuesday, started getting dressed…then needed to reset and do it over again. I belated realized that it was 36 degrees outside and consequently, once I had successfully underweared my lower half, I was free to commence directly to pants, without any further ado or intermediary layers.

No, it's the lack of daylight that does me in. If I haven't exerted complete and utter and tangible dominance over the day's to-do list by 4pm, I feel like I wasted the whole day because just take a look out there: it's dark.

And why take my customary late-afternoon walks? It's dark. During every other season, I go off on my late afternoon/early evening constitutionals and I feel like I'm idle boulevardier, wearing a metaphorical straw hat cocked at a jaunty angle, greeting fellow villagers by raising my walking stick towards the brim of said hat in a suave, urbane sort of a half-salute. When it's January and dark and cold, however, I feel like someone whose car broke down and his phone is dead and he's forced to just keep walking until he either encounters a gas station, or is gratefully picked up by a passing cop on suspicion of vagrancy.

So, yeah: it's a long slog during those months between It's Definitely Not Autumn Any More and I Think It Might Be OK To Take The Second Comforter Off The Bed. Two checkpoints along the route help me get through it:

• The Winter Solstice. December 21, this year. Sunsets arrive a little later every day, instead of coming a little sooner every day. I was surprised to learn that no, in my part of the world, this transition actually hzppens during the first or second week in December. But the date is still circled on my calendar and I celebrate it with nearly as much joy as either of the two Christmases that I'm entitled to celebrate.
• The return of Daylight Savings Time. March 8. Clocks turn forward. Once again, I feel like there are still enough hours in the day after supper or my afternoon work session to get some more stuff done. Or even simply enjoy the remaining hours in the day.

2026 has been a lot rougher on my sang froid. These weeks of intense, unrelenting cold, and the…

(Here, Andy makes a gesture that is instantly recognized by his fellow Americans as "all of this that's been going on")

…have left my elán so damp that I feel like it'll never be dry again, no matter how long I leave it draped over the radiator in the bathroom.

Consequently, it was necessary to add a new checkpoint to the route from Autumn to Spring, give me a new burst of hope and energy and optimism to carry me through to March. Observe this inspirational infographic:

(Can't see the fancy interactive infographic? Here it is as a static image.)

Yes, I used Gemini to generate this graph, based on a CSV file of sunset data. I know you're concerned about the serious issues around any use of AI. You deserve assurances that this technology is being used thoughtfully and ethically. I assembled an ecumenically-diverse, 12-person ethics board to examine those issues, in depth. They reported back that the creation of this graph has probably inflicted some nonzero quantity of suffering upon the world and our society, no question. But they're happy to let it slide. They're as sick of this winter as I am. The graph cheered them all up immensely.

The graph makes it clear that sunset is arriving later every day. And we seem to be inside the part of the graph where the rate of increase is as fast as it's ever going to get. It's not a puny handful of seconds per day! It's nearly a minute and a half!

(…rounding "76.3 seconds" up to "a minute and a half" is mathematically defensible, but transparently misleading. I know. Please just let me have this.)

And the rate of change isn't headed for a big dive, either! For the next several months, the sun will be setting nearly a whole "Hey, Jude" later every week!

I've added a new annual recurring reminder. This time next year, I'm going to receive a notification from myself that reads "Please don't do anything rash, like grow a mustache, join a book club, or write any angry and misguided letters to the creators of that streaming series you hate. Just hang on. You're nearly there. You've made it to the point in winter where the days are getting more longerer, fasterer. Well done!" ⓘ