A More Colorful World

Except for the ones after a night of exquisite passion with someone you deeply care for, the best sunrises are the ones while there are wild fires.

Normal sunrises, in my experience, are pretty much just a lightening of the world:

1. Everything is dark.
2. Black shapes show up.
3. Shapes turn grey and are more visible.
4. Shapes are clear and start to color.
5. Colors become more clear.
6. You're staring straight at the sun as it crests the horizon and all you can see for a little while is a purple after image no matter where you look.
7. Everything looks normal.

Bor-ring.

When there are fires, though, the sky turns colors. Reds and oranges and yellow spread out from where the sun will rise. Any clouds that are in the sky reflect the reds and oranges and yellows, only in deeper shades, showing a nice contrast to what's behind and beneath them.

On mornings when there were wildfires in Yosemite, I'd insist on working the drive-thru at 'Bucks. The drive-thru window faced east and I'd stand there watching the colors shift as the sun rose.

This morning's paper had a headline saying there were 842 wildfires in California.

The sunrise was spectacular.