This morning the air was so clear that I felt it could cut me if I ran through it too quickly. In weather terminology, severe clear is a condition where the particulate count is extremely low, humidity is also very low, and there is no visible cloud or other visual anomaly. Literally, it is so clear that nothing is in your way; just sky and you. These are some of my favorite days, these knife-edge days.

As I drove south on I-5, I could see every mountaintop. Every single one. Oh, look, there's Whitehorse Mountain. And Big Four. And majestic Pilchuck. I could even see Mt. Index. Tahoma (Mt. Rainier) presided over the southern horizon in her usual quiet, queenly fashion.

It is something wondrous and fleeting to be heralded into one's day by these monoliths. I tried to find a photograph to illustrate, but there were none that did this morning justice.