Light

Today was the first sunny day since I arrived in Skagway, and to call it sunny really isn't doing it justice.

This actually started last night, when the wind--freezing cold and howling--blew out all the clouds. I kept checking out the front window for northern lights, but the moon was just too bright, and the way it was hitting the snow on the mountains meant that end of the valley was like looking at a stage.

Most of the day, despite the perfectly clear sky, the sun was behind the mountains. Let me say again, this is a really narrow valley. But around the time I went to the post office, about 2 in the afternoon, the sun had come out, low, past the mountains to the south, so that it was hanging over the Lynn Canal.

For the first time since I arrived, I put my sunglasses on. Now, my sunglasses are not your normal ones. First, the colder it gets, the darker these get. I paid a fortune for that feature, to prevent snow blindness. Second, they already start off dark enough I could weld through them. When I bought them, the shop didn't want to make them that dark, said it would be bad for my eyes. I explained my eye problems, and they said, "oh, okay."

So: 29 degrees out, the glasses have darkened another 10% or so.

And still I was squinting in the light.

It was sharp, it was relentless, it was everywhere.

And what I suddenly realized was that I hadn't seen light this clean--no pollution, no dust, no nothing but air--in years.

The moon's still too bright for northern lights tonight, but I'm still going to keep going to the window to check.