Sunrise No. 57 of 2,000+
- Sunrise time: 7:34
- Azimuth: 102° ⇡
- Did the sun rise: Yes
- Was the sun visible: Briefly
- Felt like: -15 ºF
- Air Temp: -3 ºF
- Humidity: 62%
- Wind: 6 mph ⇡
- Wind gust: 11 mph
Exposure
- 17mm
- f/9.0
- 1/60 sec
- 160
Bum's Beach, Marquette, MI
0.7 mile commute
📍 46° 32' 7" N, -87° 23' 37" W
Musings [386 words]
Today, the sunrise is officially one hour earlier than my first 2019 Marquette sunrise, on January 2nd (the first of the year was from Whitefish Point).
As much as I love winter, it doesn’t mean I love shoveling any more than the next person. Ok, I probably do, but I admit trudging through the snow can be really frustrating and the cold can be difficult to deal with. All of that builds character, and whining about it does not build character.
My biggest struggle during winter is the shortness of daylight. That struggle magnifies when you’re not a morning person and choose to sleep in most mornings. This year is differnet, having been up for every sunrise thus far, I’m taking near-full advantage of all the daylight we’re given.
Of course the days are still getting longer at a rate of 40 seconds per day. It will be interesting to see this change on the other side of the Summer solstice, and especially heading into December when the shortest day of the year offers only 8 hours and 34 minutes of daylight, compared to 11 hours presently.
Yesterday I published a quite successful post to U.P. Supply Co., posing the question, “How long would it take to resurface Lake Superior with a single Zamboni?”. I continue to be delighted and amused by the calculations. But I believe there’s a deeper importance to it.
To say those who live by The Lake take it for granted wouldn’t be quite the right statement, those some certainly do. More accurately, even for those who interact with Her the most, we lose perspective on just how large Lake Superior and the Great Lakes are.
I regularly talk with a friend from Duluth , and another from Sault Ste. Mari . Eeach are several hours away. Yet, when we talk about The Lake, and sunrises, and sunsets, we’re talking about the same lake. Seeing that on a map, or knowing that as common knowledge, might not give any sense of awe or delight.
However, maybe people will find awe and delight in knowing that Lake Superior is the equivalent of 52,020,513 North American ice rinks, which would take 693 years to resurface with a single Zamboni machine.
Even in the context of the lake I see every day, I’m incredibly small.