Blissfully windless day by the river, the water calm with occasional long slow swells as a boat went by. Plenty of sun climbing behind my bench, and a huge soft gray cloud, tinted pink along its top edge, hung like a backdrop behind the buildings on the opposite side. Once it drifted away, nothing but bright blue sky, though out my window now I can see more thin white than blue. Only one squirrel popped from the nest while I was watching this morning. I believe that was Squeeze. The time was just sunrise, and Squirrely tends to be an earlier riser than that. Sunrise, by the way, due to some wobble in the earth's orbit, don't ask me, continues to move later until Jan. 10, while sunset also moves later. Luckily the amount of movement is uneven; we're gaining more on the backside than we're losing on the front. Sounds like all my diets. But anyway, the days are getting longer, which I live for, and soon not only will sunset come later but sunrise will be earlier and earlier. Which will, quite literally, make my day.