For all the optimism any of us may muster, we are about to plunge into a time of darkness. Daylight Saving Time ends Sunday morning, and Saturday also began the 90 darkest days (astronomically speaking) of the cold-weather season.

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       It was 45 days from Saturday to the Dec. 21 winter solstice. Saturday’s 10 hours and 22 minutes of chilly daylight shrinks by Dec. 21 to a sparse 9 hours, 28 minutes.

       But 45 days later, on Feb. 4, we will have emerged from winter’s deepest gloom. Any number of blizzards, deep freezes and other seasonal vicissitudes may have occurred.

       But on Feb. 4, we will, according to the Time and Date website, again receive the same allowance of illumination as on Saturday.

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       However as daylight grows short, some things grow long. Obviously the night. And perhaps less obviously, as the sun sinks in towar the horizon, shadows are also long.

       Meanwhile, on Sunday we return to standard time. This has nothing to do with our allotment of daylight.

       But it is perception that counts, and traditionally, many people will be find themselves bereft of daylight, through no fault of their own, on ending work on Monday.

       So it may seem that our sunshine has been cruelly stolen.