21 December 2013

Winter Solstice, 2013

Long, Dark Nights Dept: Many seem to be fascinated by the short daylight hours in Alaska. So you'll be interested to know that sunrise today in Anchorage will be at 10:13, and sunset at 3:42.

To be completely honest, it starts getting light (if the skies are clear) some 30 minutes prior to sunrise, and stays light for about 25 to 30 minutes after sunset. Since our forecast is for snow flurries, the cloudy conditions make it seem darker.

And remember, the days start getting longer tomorrow. Even as we go into the coldest months of the winter (January & February, here), the days are much longer by then, so it's not so bad.

Think of it as God's promise that summer is on the way. That's not a bad thing. :)

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Criminal Stupidity, But I Repeat Myself Dept: 
A police officer in the Northwest Alaska village of Kobuk is charged with soliciting a 12-year-old girl for sex.

The officer, Leon Outwater, was arrested Thursday, according to Alaska State Troopers. Court records said Outwater is 22 years old.

Outwater sent at least 20 text messages to the girl in a 24-hour period asking her for sex, troopers said Friday. He allegedly sent the text messages from a village-owned cellphone while he was drunk on duty. [emphasis added]

Outwater faces three felony counts: two charges of soliciting first- and second-degree child sexual abuse as an authority figure and one charge of evidence tampering.

Unbelievable. Well, almost unbelievable ... and sad.

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Headline of the Day Dept: "Boehner the red-nosed Speaker has some very whiny foes". 

I disagree with the author's views, but the title is clever.

6 comments:

PioneerPreppy said...

Interesting. Really we are only getting maybe 3 or 4 hours more daylight than you are. It was almost 8am before the sun came up here and it's gone by 4:15 or so.

Longer days incoming!!!

Rev. Paul said...

The big difference is in the summertime, when it hardly gets dark.

Springtime's only a few months away!

Sandy Livesay said...

Rev. Paul,

Hurry up summer!!!! :-)

This police officer is not to bright. Let me guess, it was the alcohol texting.

Rev. Paul said...

Sandy, I wouldn't be at all surprised. Sadly, you're probably right.

Chickenmom said...

My first seed catalog came in the mail yesterday. Kind of early, since you can't plant anything until late May here!

Rev. Paul said...

Chickenmom, I can't blame the retailers for trying to drum up business, these days, but it does get annoying sometimes.

Late May's about the earliest things can go in the ground here, too, because the soil is frozen.