Shorter Days

When I left work tonight at 5:30 pm tonight I thought to myself 'it seems like it's getting dark kind of early this week' and so it was. Because of being further away from the equator the days shorten up more quickly here by quite a few minutes per day in October than in Nova Scotia. When I arrived the days were the same length but the difference today was sunrise 45 minutes later here than home and sunset an hour and a half earlier.  So the lights were twinkling before I even got out of the building. 

Twilight at 5:40 pm

This has led to me putting a flashlight in my pocket as required equipment. Because of the early dusk I'm going for a walk (on days I'm not on call) at noon hour because I'm having trouble adjusting to an hour for lunch - actually I'm having trouble just realizing I can get lunch, so it's quite a switch. Returning before January 11th will mean I get to witness the 24 hours of darkness phenomenon and then the light returning day by day. And I will surely welcome wearing the parka that I am having made for me which will be available when I return. I spoke to a lady who sews today and we were discussing material so I told her I don't care what kind of material for the shell as long as it's a print because it won't show the dirt as much and it doesn't matter about the fur for the edge of the hood, cuffs and bottom of the parka (she was very surprised as apparently this is an important point for most) as I'm not picky.

Had a message from the life partner and after a bit of a rocky start what with the previously mentioned flight delays, seeing a large part of Saskatchewan as he attempted to get his hunting license and then having to be rescued when he got the rental car stuck (I assume driving it like it was the 4x4 truck he's used to). His buddy had to leave work to get him unstuck as the friend had only taken Thursday and Friday off to entertain his guest.  Apparently the past two days have gone more smoothly and he has been seeing lots of ducks and geese and actually bringing some home. He will be heading home after the weekend so hope his luck continues.

Should get myself settled down as I'm on call tonight and sometimes the early evening sleep turns into the only nap that's taken. At least with weekend call there's the catch up sleep at some point of the weekend, not like dragging your carcass in to work the next day. Have only had two phone calls - one for advice and one was a wrong number. Wrong numbers are extremely frequent up here, not sure if everyone tries to dial from memory or what - it's not as if there is more than one exchange. The phone books are numerous so that's not really an excuse and there are actually lots of folks without phones so not many numbers. In fact the phone book covers all of Nunavut and Northwest Territories.

Thinking of the teacher daughter as she's running a race this weekend. Am sure she'll do well even though she's recovering from a cold. Up here I'm thinking I need my traks for my boots as the skidoos on the road make it really slick. Enough ramblings.