The Pendulum Swings

Well I looked at the sunrise/sunset report for Anchorage for this week and we are gaining 6 minutes of light a day right now. It is now daybreak when I arrive at work and the sun doesn't set until I'm hungrily eating my dinner after 6pm. This realization got me to thinking about the sun situation here in Alaska. Before coming here that was one thing that I thought would be a hardship about living in Alaska and many people commented to me that they didn't think they could stand being without the sun all winter. Having survived my first winter, I can safely say this: It isn't that bad. It isn't that great either. Let me dispel some myths. First of all, it isn't dark all winter. Even in mid-winter we still were getting 4+ hours of daylight a day. Granted it was generally overcast but it wasn't without ambient sunlight. Conversely, it wasn't sunny all the time in the summer and there was a few hours of night even in midsummer. Regarding the temperatures here, it does get very cold but it isn't subzero all winter. In fact I think we only had about a week, maybe two in all, of subzero temperatures. (This is true for Anchorage other parts of Alaska are more harsh)
Anyway, going back to my pendulum epiphany, the point is that while the summer is one extreme of light and winter one extreme of dark, overall, as the pendulum swings first toward light and then toward dark, it spends the majority of the time somewhere between the two. I, for one, enjoy the time between the extremes!