Persistence

Flaming cords halfway to the sky,
narrow to threads and push
a hundred souls towards the rising sun.
Their silver wings reduced
mere motes against the crystal blue
Each cord slowly unbraids itself westward
broad ribbons of lace, then cobwebs.
Ever onward they pass,
driven by unseen urgency
until they fade, disappear and only sky remains.

Begun after the last post, I thought I knew what this was about. Let me know if you figure it out.

Contrails

This morning I was sitting looking out at a fine morning sunrise. I wasn't intending to be "observing," just enjoying. Then I saw the contrails.

Everyone who looks up has seen contrails. They are the artificial clouds that form behind high flying airplanes. They are not exhaust "smoke" though. Actually it is water vapor just like regular clouds. They form when the air is almost saturated with water vapor so that clouds can form, but not quite. Then the aircraft flies by. The exhaust contains hot water vapor that quickly cools in the friged upper atmosphere, and condenses into clouds. For more info on contrails see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrail
A more detailed rendering is at http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/wxwise/class/contrail.html

What was interesting the other day was that I was looking east towards the cascasdes. One after another, contrails became visible midway across the sky. Farther north, nothing. Then suddenly this magical appearance behind planes that were invisible in the distance.

I surmise that the planes were flying into an invisible front that was bringing the rain that we had later in the day. Either that, or the planes were bearing eastward and crossing the Cascades at that point and the mountains caused the local climate change.

Either way, it is one thing to see the maps of the invisible currents of air and moisture on the evening news. It is quite another to see the science experiment happening right outside your window.

In The Beginning

Yeah, OK that's kind of a pretentious title. And yet, I'm finally trying my hand at blogging. It's a pretty narcissistic passtime as far as I can tell, so what the hell. Why not add a little pretense on top.

Seriously, Sometimes I think of something that might be of general interest. So if you are seeing this, look around and see if I've thought of anything else I want to tell you.

Cheers!