Darkness...Overcoming me!

Or maybe not.
As advertised, the days are considerably darker now, as we are rapidly approaching the shortest day of the year. (OK, it's a month off, but it sure seems close now.) The sun rose this morning at 9:07 a.m. and is setting as I write this at 4:30 p.m. This has some interesting emotional effects. Most notably, short days like this are the source of SAD (seasonal affective disorder) which makes people go crazy and kill themselves. In order to combat this, full spectrum lights are helpful, as well as some other measures. Starting about a month ago, we started seeing signs all over the place advertising "We have SAD lights!" In the day or two before I put two and two together, I kept thinking "Why would anyone want sad lights? What would make them sad? Do they have little frowny faces on them or something?" Then the light (Ha!) went on.
It is a bit weird in some ways. The department I work in has one big office with great big windows, and I get to work at 8 while it is still very dark, and it is a couple of hours until we have daylight. In some ways this is nice - the other morning a beautiful full moon was visible from our window all morning. Then after you work for a while, it starts getting dark, which makes you start sort of winding down for the day. Then you realize it's around 3:30. Sigh.
People at work are constantly giving me little hints on Dealing with the Darkness. I expect to be shown an after-school-special on the subject any day now. I am really fine with it, personally. It actually makes the inside seem so much cosier to me. I have always liked winter, and it's kind of nice to drink a cup of tea or hot chocolate and look out the window - you can actually see how cold it is outside - it's like the air is sharp or something. Everyone I say this to, however, says "Just wait until February! Then you won't like it!" I think I still will, but we'll see.
From the scads of advice Art and I have been given, here are the ones that seem reasonable:

• Don't drink when you are depressed, but go ahead and have a drink if you are in a good mood.
• Take up an outdoor sport such as cross-country skiing or snowshoeing.
• Get out and socialize, don't just hang around your house or you will wind up divorced.

We are currently considering how to apply this advice to our daily lives. I think I'll start with #1.