Date: January 7, 2006
Weather: -23°C and cloudy
Sunrise: 13:41
Sunset: 14:17

The times you see listed for sunrise and sunset are from Environment Canada’s Weather Office. I’m not sure how they came up with these because as far as I could tell, the sun didn’t come up at all today. I suppose they are doing their best to calculate these things and they can’t always get them perfectly right. Nevertheless, if the sun did come up, I doubt if would have stayed up for that long.

The sunrise festival happened tonight. It was scheduled for 6PM and Lorie and I were there on time. There weren’t a lot of people there and, we were a little disappointed. We had heard that this was a big thing and pretty much the whole community came out. Some people were straggling in over the next few minutes, but the numbers just weren’t there.

There were a couple of bonfires burning. And some of the people milling about were drinking hot chocolate and eating hot dogs. It didn’t seem like a very exciting celebration. In fact most of the people there were actually sitting in their idling trucks.

I am beginning to understand a little more about the culture up here. One of the real big differences is schedules. They are less rigid here…much more casual. So 6PM here doesn’t actually mean 6PM. So somewhere between 6:30 and 7:00 the place filled up…big time. If there were any people left in town, I’d be surprised.

The place was crowded and the anticipation was building. The situation went from a few apathetic citizens milling about a bonfire, to virtually the entire town gathering. I could hear friends greeting each other, and people generally chatting and milling about. Then the fireworks began.

They don’t have fireworks here in July for Canada Day; what would be the point, you wouldn’t see them anyway with the 24 hours of light at that time of year. Also, I don’t remember any fireworks for New Years Eve. The result is a massive fireworks display tonight. It was truly impressive. It went on for a full eighteen minutes and it was some of the most impressive fireworks that I have ever seen. I would say that the display tonight rivals any display in any city in Canada. You have to remember that this is a town of only 2500 or 3000. I wish I had brought my camera to take some pictures, but I forgot it.

Following the fireworks we had a little get together at the house. A few friends came over for some snacks and a few drinks, and a few laughs. We had lost of fun.

Cheers!