Longest Day of the Year

[susandennis]

In a newsletter from this morning: Today is the longest day of the year in Seattle, with the sun rising at 5:11am and setting at 9:10pm. That's 15 hours, 59 minutes of daylight.

But really, it does not get dark dark - like dark enough for fireworks - until about 10. I've lived here more than 30 years now and it still surprises me every year.

They do not have lightening bugs (fireflies) here and I think it's really a blessing. Lightening bugs were one of the great joys of my summers growing up. Every year, the same. Mayonnaise jars with lids poked with holes, filled with grass. Those silly bugs were so easy to catch. No, you couldn't read by the light but I tried. Every time.

children growing up here do not know what they are missing which is good. They would never be allowed to stay up late enough for lightening bug catching here. Maybe that's why we have none. They know they wouldn't get any mayonnaise jar love!

I have finally gotten a set of newsletters and twitter feed about goings on in Seattle that give me a good picture. As the traditional local news - particularly tv - gets worse and worse, I now feel like I have a decent handle on the goings on around here.

I got an email last night from the La-z-boy store. Barring any unforeseen, etc. my new chair will be here mid-July!!! I bought it in December of last year and was told it would take 10-14 months to get here. At the time, I really did think it was the dumbest purchase ever. Would I even be alive then???? Now, I'm thinking I was brilliant. I could find no other chair that even came close to what I wanted and this was exactly it.

Now I have to get rid of the el cheapo chair I got from Amazon. I knew at the time I got it, that it was temporary. I don't mind how it looks but it is godawful to sit in. And now Biggie has pretty much clawed up its looks. It's small but way too big for me to move, much less fit in my car. So Task Rabbit. I found a woman with an SUV on Task Rabbit. She'll be here on Saturday morning to pick it up. I suggested she take it to Goodwill (>3 miles away) but allowed as I don't care really what she does with it. Her charge = $30. A bargain. And I'm still within budget for the month.

This morning I am off to Home Depot. I need steps and screws. And wing nuts. And that sounds like the teaser to a new tv sit com.

Yesterday afternoon, Biggie held this pose for the longest time.



After I snapped the shot, I went to look and, sure enough, 3 of those damn little gray birds were sitting on the terrace probably smack talking him. They left as soon as I saw them. Cowards.

Comments

[bill_schubert]

Georgetown:

14 Hours 10 Minutes

[susandennis]

that's kind of a big difference. do you have lightening bugs?

[bill_schubert]

We do have lightening bugs. They have shorter work hours.

[susandennis]

i can dig it

[carriea31]

No lightning bugs here either (AZ). We lived in Missouri when I was little and I used to catch those things all the time. My sister has a scar on her thumb from where she slipped and stabbed herself trying to poke holes in my jar for the fireflies to get air through. What a good sister.

[susandennis]

My Dad punched my holes - it's part of the sweet memory. And, yeah, that's a VERY good sister!

[desdemonaspace]

Biggie is a sentry just doing his job of keeping your world free from bird threat.

[susandennis]

you know what? So far, he's 100% successful.

[sherlockishere]

Do fireflies breath air? I always wondered about that...................

[susandennis]

oh! i don't know. i never asked! hmmmm

[loganberrybunny]

I'm a bit further north than you (a little north of 52°) so here the sun is up today from 4:47am to 9:35pm. There are some low hills to my west, so actual sunset is just after 9:20pm. Still not bad! The sky never gets fully dark: one of the things that always surprises me at midsummer, even though I see it most years, is that if I happen to be awake in the middle of the night, the sky is lightest in the north as that's where the sun is!

We only have one moderately common firefly here (the common glow-worm) and one very rare one (the lesser glow-worm) and I've very rarely seen even the first despite living close to the edge of town. We don't get any of the American species.

[susandennis]

Wow. You totally win.

Probably Brexit screwed up the visa process for lightening bugs. Just a guess.

[vegetablearian]

Apparently the day here had 16 hours, 50 minutes of light. The sun supposedly set 15 minutes ago but I can't tell! It's light outside and the streetlights aren't going to go on for a while. I have the bad habit of thinking this time of year is normal and all the other days are unreasonably short :)

I'm jealous of your childhood with fireflies. We only have glow-worms here (which don't fly) and I've never even seen one of those. When I was little, I didn't believe the fireflies I saw on tv were real!

Biggie looks so serious, hehe!

[hopefulspirit]

It's the solstice so we will get 19 hours and 21 minutes of daylight, if I remember right. Close to that. It never gets completely dark this time of year so it's hard to keep track. I love it.

Lightning bugs! I remember the first time I ever saw them when we went to northern Minnesota to visit some relatives. We didn't have them where I grew up in Montana, so it was amazing.

Biggie is on top of things.

[adafrog]

That's really cheap for a chair removal. Yay!

[rsc]

WE got 15 hours and change. I've seen fireflies (we don't call them lightning bugs around here) through our porch windows in past years; haven't noticed any yet this year, but I think we usually get them a little later.