6.21.2005

happy solstice

I've been so holed up in the ancient world, I almost forgot to wish you all a happy solstice. In northern hemisphere, today is the first day of summer.

If you live in Alaska, you can play midnight baseball, or just open a beer, hang out at the game and stay up all night.

6 comments:

Rognar said...

I'm just happy to celebrate three straight days with no rain.

laura k said...

That flooding sounds brutal. I'm celebrating the end of a heat wave and return to June (as opposed to August) weather.

Rognar said...

Yeah, it's tough. Being right by the mountains is usually a blessing, but not when it rains heavily. One guy in a small town south of Calgary appropriately-called High River had a whole new river channel form through his backyard. Before the flood, his house was a quarter mile from the river, now his house is on one bank and his shed is on the other.

On the Prairies, they plan for a "1-in-100" event, a once in 100 year flood. This flood exceeded all projections for such an event, just like the last "1-in-100" event we had in 1995! Can you say "global warming"?

laura k said...

Oh yeah! Thinking about solstice reminded me of when we were in Alaska. We visited a glacier, and on the ground surrounding it there were brass markers, marking the outer edge of the glacier in various years - something like 1890, 1910, 1930, 1960, etc. In the last 10 years the glacier has receded more than it did in the preceding 75.

Native fishermen can't fish in spots their grandfathers fished - the ice is too thin. Crazy.

dogsled_stacie said...

Or... in Canada you can golf under the midnight sun in the northernmost golf course - Dawson City.

Timely discussion - I was just discussing that topic of receding glaciers with some tourists today. We were talking about the Columbia Icefields in Alberta and how much those had receded in the last century. They had the same kind of markers you mention, L. where the amount of recession is huge. Up here as well, photos from glaciers 100yrs ago compared to now are overwhelming in how little of the glacier is left.

Happy Solstice to you guys!!

laura k said...

Hey Dogsled Stacie, I was thinking about you up there with the midnight sun. Midnight golf, what a concept!

Receding glaciers, a "what a concept" of a different kind...