I saw the light

Northern lights on the way home last night. Dim but they were there and ever so great to see. Apparently this year we are toward the end of an 11-year cycle of low solar activity and there have been very few lights this winter. It made me think of the East Pole and raised a desire to go so I am off on an expotition tomorrow. Weather is perfect, my favorite time of year. Cold nights and warmer days with plenty of snow to get around. On the west-facing deck it gets to 70 degrees in the afternoon sun. You can sit out there in a T shirt at least until the sun goes behind the big tree and it drops to 25 again. A nice place to have an afternoon cocktail. Unfortunately I was watching the northern lights when I should have been watching the road and I just missed a couple of moose. A minute sooner and it would have been tight but they were already stepping off the road when I came up on them. That got the adrenaline flowing a bit. The rest of the way home I got to feeling like I have been away from Alaska for a while and need to get back.