Oh, How Good the Sun Feels!

I’m not sure how it is where you are, but it’s sunny here today. Really, really sunny. You know those perfectly clear blue winter skies, with not a hint of cloud or bit of off-color smudging the perfect pale blue arc of the heavens? That’s today.

It’s not exactly warm; Weatherbug gives the temp here as 28°F/-2°C. Still, it’s warm enough that the lack of wind and our south-facing balcony in full sun drew me outside, onto the chair that has huddled beneath so much snow, ice and cold on our balcony. I sat and soaked in the sunshine. I felt like a plant, drinking in the sun’s rays for sheer sustenance. The warmth of the sunlight, the feel of it on my face, my hands, my arms where I shoved my sleeves up to reveal more skin to the light–oh, it was blissful.

I feel rejuvenated now, after almost an hour sitting in the sun. It’s almost as if I went to a tropical beach for an hour, I feel that giddy. Sure, it was my lunch, when I should have been writing, but I don’t regret this for a moment. Lack of sunlight in winter is a serious thing. Along with the cold, it keeps me shivering inside–way too much. So these beautiful days, the ones that spring out at me from nowhere and force me outside, into warmth despite the cool air and bright sunlight that squints my eyes closed and sets my mind into a peaceful tranquility, are so precious, so necessary to my survival until spring actually arrives.

Meanwhile, the fish babies are growing! They get fed every couple hours, just a teaspoonful of frozen daphnia thawed out in a half-cup or so of water. There are 12 of them now, down from 17 that I counted earlier (and who knows how many to begin with!). I only ever saw one dead body, so it’s a mystery where the others got to. (Yes, I know that swordtails are cannibals, and that the lost dead probably fed their siblings, but I don’t really want to consider that. I’d rather assume there was some trans-dimensional fish portal, taking the missing fry to a world where they will be rare and cherished beings.)

And that, dear folks, is that. The sun is still shining, my mood is as well, and now…now I have words to conquer and stories to tell.