December 5th - 10:40am sunrise

I'm just in the process of getting back to writing again after my recent gallbladder-removal surgery and subsequent recovery, and the most interesting thing to report (besides the fact I can eat again) is that the sun just rose here in Wasilla, Alaska at 10am. While the following photo isn't from this morning, this will give you some idea of what it looks like, even as we now approach 11:30am:

During the day, until the sun sets at around 4:15pm, it just barely creeps along the tops of those trees, moving from left to right across the skyline. In fact, it rises right where you see it, and sets just off the right side of this image; it doesn't go across the sky from east to west like it does in the Lower-48, it just comes up a little bit, slides over to the right, and goes back down again.

In related news, the Winter Solstice -- the shortest day of the year in terms of sunlight -- arrives on December 21st. Some of the people I've met here have either told me they'll be having a party, or that it's otherwise a very happy day, knowing that the days will start to get longer again.