Sun Return

A winter's dawn in Seattle is a creeping thing, a soft wave of pearly gray that breaks over the mountains and flushes the sky with streaks of color before letting them fade into the coming day. It's a quiet thing, no onrushing wave of heat, just a quiet protest of light against the deep dark of winter.

In college, I rarely saw the dawn, even from the wrong side of waking. Now, I wait in bed until some hint of twilight spills into my room before scurrying for my shower.

Happy, happy solstice. The sun's coming back, and I can finally slip from dread of diminishing light into the happy anticipation of longer days.

Eight hours and 26 minutes

8:26. That's how much daylight we get today. Eight lousy hours, and I get to spend most of it inside. In retrospect, I think I should just have forgone the slamon at lunch and settled for a nap in one of the couches upstairs in the South Campus Center. With all the students gone, it's quiet and empty. Of couse, I might sleep through the rest of work, but is that really so bad?

Dad just called. I'm picking him up at the airport in 5 1/2 hours. Yay! Dadness!

Eight hours. It makes up for the sixteen hours of summer sunlight, but man... I gotta start saving for winter vacations next year. Australia's nice this time of year, I hear...