Almost exactly a year ago this was the scene captured through The Institute’s viewports. Approximately 8:00am, temperature around 200°below zero and a light wind moving the fog into and up the ravine to bump up against the side of The Institutes weather gazing platform.

The sun was up and trying its best to break through the clouds. It was hit and miss most of the time, sometimes breaking through to light up the entire scene, other times barely able to light up a single wisp of fog. The range of colors was extraordinary from a deep indigo blue in the shadows to a rich warm gold as the slowly moving fog rose up into the sun’s rays. Occasionally the light hitting the fog would break down into the color spectrum causing a faint violet tinge, sort of like a frozen rainbow.

Not long after this image was captured the sun rose high enough to bring its power down onto the scene, the fog burned off, the light turned harsh and it was full day again. Still cold, not as pretty, but winter in the Rockies.

Today a year later, it’s cold again. There is no fog, hardly any snow, but lots of wind. 90 mph along the foothills of Northern Colorado. It is still winter and it looks like it is going to stay that way for months. To some of you who had expressed an interest in skipping winter this year I’m afraid I have some bad news. Ain’t going to happen. Sorry to be so brusque but I figure we might as well just get it out there so you can deal with it and work something out. Personally I intend to scour the web to locate places within this galaxy at a reasonable travelling distance where they have warm mostly every day, not too hot, but warm. Then when I find it, you know, like go there. I’ll keep you posted on how that all works out.