Parhelia

We were out on the lake last Monday night (and Tuesday night, but that’s another story) and at one point I happened to look up at the clouds and see this prism of light shining through. Terry said it was something called a sundog. Since I keep getting older, it may be that I don’t remember hearing about this optical sky phenomenon but I should since it is rather common. Sundogs are vertical bars of coloured light that form when light refracts off the ice crystals (“diamond dust”) in cirrus clouds. Usually they appear in pairs on either side of the sun when it rises or sets. The one we saw was to the right of the setting sun. The clouds to the left were too thick for anything to shine through. What really has me confused is how there could be cirrus clouds containing ice crystals in such beastly hot weather.

That night we also rode up to watch some of Chautauqua Idol but it wasn’t very good. One of the contestants butchered the lyrics to Billy Joel’s “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” and I kept cringing until I looked at Shannen and saw she was also cringing, then I had to say something none too kind. Lori seems to think if I was a judge on American Idol, I’d be Simon, but I took a lame Internet quiz that said I’d be Randy Jackson, whoever that is. Although Simon was a close second.