Living in a bowl
Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2004 at 1:31 P.M.
Living in a valley is like living in a bowl. No matter where you are you can look around and see the sides and figure out where you are (having a grid street system doesn�t hurt either). But just by looking up you can see where the mountains are positioned and be merrily on your way.
The thing that people don�t realize until they are here, is that things settle in the valley. There is this lovely phenomenon called inversion. Now if you are like me and never lived in a valley before you probably have no idea what inversion is., well it�s this smog that settles in during the winter. Think of it this way, if the valley were a bowl of soup, the inversion smog would be that layer of grease on the top of the soup. Yuk, Yeah. It usually takes some hefty winds or a storm to clear it out.
Unlike other places, when the sky is grey and gloomy you can usually tell how bad it is by looking to the east to see where the cloud ceiling meets the mountains. You can also use the mountains as an informal thermometer. The lower the snow-line, the colder it is. That used to be a great tool when I lived in an apartment that had a clear view of the mountains. I could look out the bathroom window each morning and know if it was a jacket or coat day.
But another think I never knew about living in a valley is you get the most amazing rainbows. I�m talking visible from end to end and sometimes refracting the light three or four times to give multiple rainbows at once. The clouds usually sweep in from the west and then kind of get caught on the mountains, then as the sun heads west the magic starts. When this happens it I usually pretty spectacular because there is the backdrop of the mountains, with the black clouds pressed up against them, and then the rainbows(s) hovering in front.
Speaking of rainbows. Did I mention that I saw rainbow icicles the other day? It was pretty amazing. I�d never seen anything like it before. It was one of those days where it is chilly out but the sun is warm enough to be melting things. So the icicles on our covered parking structure were all shiny and dripping. I was sitting to the south looking north at the icicles, and the sun was to the west and I was at the perfect angle that every drop and it moved its way down the length of the icicle was not only twinkling in the sunlight, but twinkling in bright enough rainbow shades that I could see them from 30 feet away. It was like nature�s own little disco show! It was Crazy. I should have gotten off my butt and tried to capture it with my new camera, but I was afraid if I moved from that spot I wouldn�t be able to get at the exact right angle again to see it.. See what I said about the simple pleasures? They are what can totally make my day!
bEfOrE ~ AftEr
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