Two Workers in the House of the Rising Sun

I am approaching the end of my very last week of work for the year. Penn State is closed for about a week and a half around the Christmas and New Year's Day holidays. And of course, you know what that means: there are lots of holiday parties going on, with lots and lots of food. And at the same time, everybody is trying to get everything done that didn't get done the whole rest of the year. So it tends to be a very busy time!

I had many meetings on campus during this week, which meant that my time was more tied up than usual. But it also meant that I got to spend some time on campus, enjoying the snow scenes, at a time when many of the students have already gone.

On this particular morning, I had meetings starting at 9 am. As I was driving in on Park Avenue, I saw the moon, and it was huge! So I was moving as quickly and expeditiously as I could, thinking that maybe I'd get an even better version than yesterday of that Arboretum walkway shot - maybe even one with that huge moon in the background!

It was very cold, around 15 degrees F (about -10 C), but it was predicted to warm up significantly during the day. By the weekend, it will be quite balmy - well above freezing - and rainy. It is anticipated that all this snow will somehow magically melt before Christmas. If it does, there will be one huge melt! Watch out, all those who live near the rivers . . .

As I was driving in just before 8 am, I was watching the moon grow smaller and smaller in the distance. I parked near the law school building and walked through the Arboretum. By that time, the formerly huge moon seemed miniscule. So much for my moon shot of the walkway. Maybe some other time. But I walked over to a huge, beautiful, old tree that stands behind the Arboretum's main pavilion building, and I was taking some pictures of the moon through its branches. It was just lovely.

But then I turned around and caught my breath! For I noticed two things: one, that the golden sun was rising; and second, that it was shining right through the main pavilion building - and within it, I could capture the sun!

So I took a bunch of pictures of the light through the building - and I noticed as I did so that there were two men working there, removing snow from part of the roof. You can sort of see them in this picture. The one man was on a ladder, knocking the snow off with a broom - you can almost see his head above the roof just to the left of the sun-flare. The second man was standing inside the building with a second broom, carefully sweeping the snow away as it fell. That first long, blue-purple shadow to the right of center is the shadow that his body cast on the snow.

I thought about what a swell job it must be, on a fine winter morning like this, to be just two workers in the house of the rising sun. And how even more awesome it was to be me, to be there at just the right time to see it, and to capture this fine, golden moment. (And yes, those tracks in the snow in the foreground are mine!)

The song to accompany this photo: The Animals, House of the Rising Sun.