Steal My Sunshine

Steal My Sunshine - Len https://youtu.be/E1fzJ_AYajA

Everyday this time of year the people of Alaska lose five minutes of sunshine. When I arrived in Anchorage in March the days were pretty typical with sunrise around 7pm and sunset around 7pm (this is not exact, just my memory).

During the Summer we had some days where it felt like the sun never actually went down. I put up blackout curtains in my bedroom. I put several layers of foil over the window in Gracen's room. In James room he hand sliding glass doors so I bought foam board insulation that has foil on one side and used that. Lorrie did not feel like the curtains were good enough and so she started taping cardboard to the bedroom windows.
Look at the right side of the window
That has all passed and now the sun comes up at 7:30am and goes down at 8pm but everyday the sunrise is approximately 2.5 minutes later and the sunset 2.5 minutes earlier. The middle of the night used to be not completely dark because of the tilt of the Earth but now it is very dark.

One of the things long-time Alaskans say to new residents (me) a lot is, "get out there and enjoy the sun" or "make sure you go outside when the sun is out". This is partially due to the depression that can occur and the lack of Vitamin D. I've been told by a few people that we need to start taking Vitamin D supplements soon to keep from having problems and some have suggested sun lamps.

I'll have to write another article late telling you how I am coping.

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