Winter’s Early Darkness Leads To Earlier Drinks, Which Leads to More Drinks
Getting dark before 5 o’clock – as is the case with Daylight’s Savings Time – is too early. At least for me.
I would rather be out doing things in the daylight rather than tucking myself in for a winter’s night.
Okay, I’m not exactly tucking it in a five in the evenings, but it getting dark so early makes the mind think it’s later than it is on the clock. After about three hours you say “wow, it’s getting late,” only to look at the smart phone and discover its only around 8’oclock.
Besides that Jedi mind trick, getting dark so early has another effect on me. I’m finding it’s making me drink more, too.
That’s because I like to have a drink at sunset. I live at the beach and it’s gorgeous. It’s just natural to grab a beer, glass of wine or even make a margarita or boat drink and enjoy it as the sun drops into the Pacific Ocean. It’s next stop is Hawaii!
I’m hardly alone on this; many locals gather on the Strand here in Manhattan Beach to do the same. It’s our evening ritual.
We’ll always have a couple of drinks and even on a slow night, another one or so with dinner.
But now, with it getting dark so early, I’m having those drinks not at 7:30 or 8, but at 5. Or in December as early as 4:30. So after a couple of them, rather than it being 8 or 8:30, it’s only about 5:30. And since I’ve had a couple then, might as well keep going, right!? A few hours later it’s only 8 or 9, so maybe I’ll have a few more because it’s too early to go to bed (and if you’re watching this bad TV these days, you need to have a few drinks).
The same thing goes for the bars. Instead of rushing off the beach or the bike path to hit that last call for Happy Hour, we’re going now practically at the start of Happy Hour. And if you’re in a place like Sharkeez Hermosa Beach early (well anytime, really), it’s hard to leave. We’re halfway to being bombed by the time we normally arrive in the summer.
Daylight’s Savings Time may be good for farmers and school children, but it’s not good for my sobriety!
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