It's Warm - Relatively Speaking!

7 December 2012
9:05 AM

Sunrise at	10:37 AM	in direction	151°	South-southeast
Sunset at	2:48 PM	in direction	209°	South-southwest

Duration of day: 4 hours, 10 minutes (4 minutes, 6 seconds shorter than yesterday)

December 7, 2:45 PM - the hues of winter

Two days ago I went out to clean the dog's yard and when I was done, I realized I wasn't at all cold.  Of course, I had on my down coat, cold weather boots (but not the deep cold Sorels), gloves, and my hood was up, but what I mean is there was no sensation of cold at any time during the activity.  I checked the temperature on the deck, -10F!  Now the funny part is that after a really cold spell, that temperature is actually very comfortable.  And I am comfortable.

-20F is the point at which we begin to put booties on all three dobermans, so we now only have to tend to Mira Bai, our nearly 13-year old lady, whose arthritis is severely affected by cold feet.  These are small things, but you can't imagine how much we appreciate reducing the time it takes to get the dogs out and in.  Obviously, Cutter, who is not scheduled to move south until after Christmas, is not impacted by a short visit out at -30F or colder.  He is very happy to get back inside, though!

We are down to just above 4 hours of daylight and the number of minutes we are losing has dropped considerably.  Each full hour loss has impact.  I continually change my internal time keeping set point by which I judge what is a "normal" amount of light.  The two weeks either side of solstice are the most noticeable, of course.  By next Monday, we will be in that period where the sun is up, but mostly as a red orb as it skims the horizon.  I am grateful for my office window.  It is making a huge difference, although I wouldn't have expected it.  I had adjusted to watching the progress of the sun through its rays reflected upon the Rasmuson Library windows.  I had my Blue Max desk lamp and did not anticipate how enjoyable it would be to pass the day next to a sunlit window through this part of the season - even if it is truly sunlit for only a few hours.

December 7, 9:22 AM - layers of color in the
morning sky

Right now there is a rosy hue on the southwest horizon, fading to gold followed by hints of green before establishing a violet transitional zone which in turn darkens to blue hues.  The colors move swiftly into deepening layers of marine teal, such as you would see in the ocean on a sunny day.  I've decided to walk out and take a photo ...

I am back.  I know from experience my iphone will not catch these hues exactly because my eye is far more sensitive than the lens of the camera; and too, the phone camera often captures lighter hues at the upper part of the image and the resolution is not as good as my digital Canon.  The day itself had also become more bright in between the time I described the sky and the time I took the photo, even though it took only minutes to walk outside for an unobstructed view (brrrr).  I offer what I think I is the best of the three I hurriedly snapped before jogging back into the building (I bravely set out without a coat).