Patience

The day ends abruptly here on the foggy coast.  It is light out and then suddenly it is not.  With stratus clouds forever lurking just above the horizon, sunsets are, more often than not, uneventful.  The sun disappears behind that opaque bank of cloud and light is extinguished.

Tonight at the mailbox, I noticed the clouds.  They were different.  And with the sunshine all day, maybe the stratus wasn't there.  I rode my bike to the edge of the bay, camera in tow.  Many other locals noticed the difference in the clouds and I was one of a dozen photographers watching the sun dip below the sea's edge.

As I've seen with many sunsets, the actual setting part isn't the best. I sat alone as the others left my side.  They drove home without a single glance back to the west.  For twenty minutes I waited.  As the sun pulled further away from the area, it cast a skyward glow upon the clouds.  I watched as the sky painted itself a faint pink at first, then red, and then a golden yellow hue that was so bright it almost appeared fake.

I pedaled my bike halfway up the hill home and turned back again.  Even more magnificent than before.  I waited until the sky turned dark.  With the lower sun angle of winter, sunsets seem to move in slow motion.  Almost 45 minutes of action and a spectacular finale for those of us that stayed.