Thursday at 4:49, the Sun will set on the shortest day of the year (only one second less of daylight than Wednesday). My magnificent 8th-grade English teacher, Mrs. Sullivan, said at this point a couple of decades ago, “We gotcha! Every day will be longer than the one before for the rest of the school year.”

She’s correct of course, but there’s an aspect of darkness where we haven’t yet hit rock bottom: late sunrise. Thursday, sunrise will be about about 7:23 am. Friday, it will actually be a bit later. Sunrise will keep getting later until January 5, when it will be 7:27. After that, we turn the corner, with sunrise getting earlier and earlier every day for six months (not counting the daylight-savings shift).