Daylight Saving Time (DST) ends on Sunday, November 1, at 2 a.m. The clocks go back an hour. By Monday, it’s dark before 5 p.m. in a lot of northern cities and cold with it. Someone leaves the office, and the street already looks like 8 p.m. Someone else skips the evening run. The hours between work and bed suddenly need filling, and these eight things tend to do it.
Online play
On Sunday night, someone in New Jersey has a football game on and a betting app open on the phone. Someone else, a few blocks over, plays blackjack online at the kitchen table. US online gambling only works in states that have legalized it, and the app checks the player’s location before anything goes through. Most of the states with it set the age at 21. A deposit limit, set before the first bet, keeps the evening from running away.
Cooking at home
Someone puts chili on the stove at four in the afternoon. Someone else pulls a pot roast out of the oven after three hours. Another person stirs a pot of soup and tastes it every five minutes. These are the popular dinner meals of cold weather, and they’re slow, which suits a dark evening. The house smells like dinner long before it’s ready. Kids drift into the kitchen to ask how much longer. Leftovers are better the next day, too.
Local events
Someone goes to a lantern tour at the historical society. Someone else catches the community theater’s fall show, and another helps serve at a church harvest supper. In many cities, Día de los Muertos events happen on November 1 and 2.
A few evenings like that and a person starts to understand the culture of the neighborhood — what people are proud of, who turns up every year, what they argue about. Library talks and craft nights are often free, too.
Stargazing
The sky is black by dinner now, so there’s no waiting up for the stars. A family in the country carries folding chairs into the yard after the dishes. Somebody has a thermos, somebody has a blanket.
The Leonid meteor shower peaks around November 17 and 18, and it shows maybe a handful of meteors an hour. Nothing dramatic. A clear night after a cold front gives the best view, and now there are many phone apps that can help you get a clearer view, name the objects, and locate planets, etc.
Ice skating
Outdoor rinks open around now in a lot of northern cities. Someone laces up skates for the first time in a year and holds the boards for two laps. A kid flies past. Somebody’s grandfather skates backwards, just to show off.
Rental skates are cheap at most rinks, and there’s usually a hot chocolate stand near the exit. Evening sessions run under floodlights, which look better than they sound. The ice gets resurfaced between sessions, and everybody stands around waiting.
Bowling
Bowling leagues start up again when it gets cold. Someone’s uncle has his own ball and his own shoes. Someone else rents the red-and-blue ones and aims for the gutter by mistake. A pitcher of soda gets passed around lane six.
Quite expectedly, weeknights are quieter than weekends, so a lane is usually easy to find without a reservation. Somebody keeps score on paper, though the screen above the lane does it automatically, and somebody disagrees. Scores matter less than the nachos.
Board games and puzzles
Someone brings Catan, someone else brings a deck of cards — which helps spend three hours engagingly. A massive 1,000-piece jigsaw sits on the dining table all week. People walking past drop a few pieces in without stopping.
The border takes a day. The sky part takes the rest. Nobody checks a phone, mostly because both hands are busy. Rules get argued over. Somebody reads the rulebook aloud, and somebody else says that isn’t how they played it growing up. The snacks go first.
Movie nights
A movie marathon needs a blanket, a bowl of popcorn and an agreement on the first film. Someone wants a Halloween leftover, someone else wants a holiday movie that’s still a month early.
One person falls asleep during the second film, every time. The couch fills up by nine. The popcorn bowl goes around twice. Someone finds the remote under a cushion after ten minutes of searching while someone wants one more film. The credits are for whoever’s still awake.
