Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Summer solstice 2011

Well, the longest day (the real longest day, not the movie "The Longest Day") has come and gone. Again. I don't know how I feel. I got up early, a little after six, drove to campus to walk, and was happily surprised when the cloud cover disappeared just at sunrise. In my bedroom, I have a north window and during solstice the sun hits just on the edge of the heater on the west wall. I almost want to mark it.

During the winter solstice the sun comes in the east windows of the kitchen out the kitchen door to the hallway into the hallway to the bathroom. A really steep angle but it is so much fun to think of this semi-annual clock at work and has been at work since long before eukaryote were even though of. The Greeks watched this. The Cahokia watched this. They Mayans watched this. The builders of Stonehenge watched this. It makes me feel kind of small.

I know (from knowledge not experience) that the days will shorten, the heat will increase, and fall is too near for comfort since I haven't exactly been busy this summer -- the second summer of my retirement.

One more tic on the cosmic clock.
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