Sundogs

Imagine my surprise when the word sundogs didn’t get an automatic underline (for misspelling) on my computer this morning. The word brought an untraditional meaning to my mind when I saw it this morning. It made me think of my daily daybreak commute to school with my potcake, Fiff (who loves to go for a ride in the car) and my grandsons. The sun rises behind us on our way and on my return is right in my face, despite my use of my car’s trusty sun visor. The morning dew is steaming from the top of our mailbox as I turn back into the driveway. That’s how I end the beginning of my day, I sometimes think, but it really is just a pleasant prelude to the rest that is yet to come.

Sundogs are actually halos of light that form around the sun with bright spots at 22 degrees on either side. They are called sundogs because they appear to follow the sun like faithful old dogs following their master. When light is refracted off the plate-shaped ice crystals in the thin and wispy cirrus clouds in the troposphere sundogs appear. The best time to see them is when the sun is low on the horizon. They seem to be more common in the winter… or in my case on school day mornings.