Cr...er, well, stuff.

One of the things that you notice around here right away is how short the days are. Really, truly, I think these are some of the shortest winter days I've ever seen. Yeah, it gets dark around 5:15 P.M.: pretty standard for this time of year in the northern hemisphere, right? But the kicker is that the sun isn't coming up until sometime after 8:00. What's up with that? And so begins my neverending quest to figure out just WHY this is. And that quest has led me finally to the internet. At first I thought, it might be that we're tucked onto a hillside, in a dense forest. And that may be it. But then I thought, there could be a much more sophisticated answer...hmm...what could that be? AHA, latitude, my friends! Lo and behold, I needed something to compare it to, and so I chose lovely Rapid City, SD, of course for comparison. Which brings me to the fun fact of the day: the latitude for Rapid City is measured at the RC Regional Airport, and do you know what the rest of the aviation world refers to Regional as? That's right, our official designator is KRAP. Nice. As though I don't get enough, you know, well, teasing about South Dakota as it is...