Not sure about the rest of you out there in readership land, but I am finding it increasingly difficult to get up in the morning these days. Yep, I am sad to say, it’s true.
My rise and shine has lost its luster. My giddy up and go has giddy up’ped and went. I am getting to bed at the correct time, still getting about eight hours of shut-eye, but when it comes to opening my baby-blues, I just wanna’ hit the snooze button — over and over.
I blame the sun.

It’s staying darker, longer in the morning and I am not a fan of this. I kinda’ dig the morning sun. Heck, I am a morning man! I even have my bed positioned so the south-facing windows let in copious amounts of sunshine — to let it wash over my slumbering body.
I reckon my brain’s internal alarm clock is activated with the light of the sun filtering through my lidded eyes. That’s my signal to get up. Now don’t get me wrong, my external alarm clock still goes off at six and I am still up and able to make the office by seven — yet, each day it’s just getting a little harder to get motivated to slide my legs out from under the sheets and plant my feet on the floor.
Stupid sun.
Not an ignorant man, I know the angle of the dangle, the tilt of the earth as it spins and rotates its way around the sun. And, I know all that jazz about the Winter and Summer solstices. Yes, I know the days start getting a wee bit longer after — what December 21? They continue to get longer all the way through June 21, our longest day of the year, when the days, a little at a time, get shorter.
Dang it! I just like being fresherer in the morning.

I hopped on the interwebs and found the longest day of the year, in Michigan is June 21 on Isle Royal. According to the website, the further north you go more light you get. They get daylight until 10 p.m.
In this area, on June 21, sunrise was at 5:55 in the morning and sunset was at 9:12 (followed by some awesome twilight hours.)
On Monday, August 13 (when I penned this gem of a Don’t Rush Me column on my blue-lined, yellow legal pad, with my handy ink pen), sunrise was officially listed as 6:37 a.m. Sunset, 8:35 p.m., for 13 hours, 58 minutes and 35 seconds of daytime. Wanna’ get depressed? Read on.
I flipped the numerals on August 13 to August 31 and looky what I discovered: By the end of the month, sunrise is projected to be at 6:56 a.m; sunset at 8:07 p.m. — for a total day time of 13 hours and 11-plus minutes. In less than a month, we lost almost an hour of sunshine!
By the way, on June 1 we had like 15 hours of daylight and by the end of September, we’ll be down to just over 11 and three quarter hours of sun.

(Holy crap, Batman. I’m becoming Donny Downer. Stop the whining already, Rush! I must need another cup of java.)
I guess I just never considered the affects of sunlight, or lack there of, on a body. Which, if I carry on this thought goes to that winter blues syndrome and why people get cranky in the months of January and February. (I just checked the Collins English Dictionary online and found the informal definition of Winter Blues: “a feeling of depression or deep unhappiness associated with experiencing the cold and darkness of winter.” So, I wasn’t just pulling things out of my sleeve that were not true.)

Just had my first sip of my second cup of coffee, and my brain is starting to get up to speed. My fingers are starting to fly over the keyboard and I am starting to feel like myself. It’s 8:09 a.m., the sun’s been up for over an hour and I am starting to feel fine.
So, to keep my feet planted firmly on the ground, and ground out this caffeine induced feeling of euphoria, I better look up something sure to knock me down a notch.

Hey! This is sure to rankle your spirits: Daylight Savings Time ends on Sunday, November 4. And, if memory serves me correct, because we turn back the hands on our clocks one hour, don’t we lose an hour of sleep? Or do we gain?
I can never figure that out until the following Monday when I get up for work.

Stupid time change.

Stupid Sun.
Comments, concerns or complaints can be delivered to Rush’s inbox by emailing, DontRushDon@gmail.com

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