Tule (Two Lee) Fog.

As I approach the sunset of my life, I am paying more attention to the sunrises.  I have always been an early riser and placed great value on break of the day work or leisure.  It is more important to me now, at 76.  I want to see that sun rise as much as I can.

Today was special.  Einstein and I departed the house in the dark.  There was an unusual heavy fog and there was that smell.  I'm going to call it a heavy, moist cloud of ozone that permeated every inch of our walk this morning.  It's a wonderful smell and Salomon Farm's landscape of fields and woods was the epicenter of the fragrance.  Dozens of beautiful spider webs dotted the yards and landscape.  Invisible during the day, the moisture collected on the webs and made a giant snowflake.  The spiders are mostly invisible but this morning's ozone blast has displayed their nightly art work.

This morning's smell woke up a memory for me.  Linda and I used to visit her uncle in Sacramento, California.  The San Joaquin Valley of California experiences a phenomenon called Tule Fog.  Tule fog is a radiation fog, which condenses when there is a high relative humidity, calm winds, and rapid cooling during the night. The nights are longer in the winter months, which allows an extended period of ground cooling, and thereby creating this unusual Tule Fog.   The smell of this fog is like no other.  Fresh hay, mixed with rich compost, a smell that lives on with you.  I used to rise early when at George's, head out the door for a morning run.  That same smell was always evident.  I can't describe it other than it being a "runner's high".  I don't think we have TuIe Fog here in Indiana but I swear the smell was exactly like what I remember those mornings in Sacramento.

 I forgot how great it was to experience that fog and wonderful smell.

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