“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 658 (Monday)

Sky blue pink.

Around 4:30 this afternoon, I had the luck to turn my head to the left in the direction of the window and catch a glimpse outside. The sky was turning the color my Mom always called “sky blue pink.” I was an adult before realizing that is actually an accurate description of the sky at a point in a sunset before the pink deepens and the orange sets in. 

Until then, I thought it was just one of Mom’s often amusing, sometimes snarky sayings. The conversation took place many times in my youth. Sometimes I asked because I genuinely wanted to know the answer, and other times it was to see if the answer would be the same as the last time. It went like this:

Me as a youngling: “Mom, what’s your favorite color?”

Mom: “Sky blue pink with purple polka dots.”

You can probably see where the uncertainty came in. And I still don't know if that was Mom's favorite color, with or without polka dots.

Once the sky was noticed today, I started stalking it. Over the next seven or eight minutes, I kept jumping up to try to get a decent photo on my phone through the window before the colors were gone. As each minute ticked by, the colors deepened outside and the reflections on the window glass from the office lights behind me increased inside.

Sky blue pink with
window reflections.

By the time the sunset had reached its most intense color, the interior reflections were impossible to avoid and the image impossible to capture, on the phone anyway. The reflections might be overcome if the sunset was at a straight angle to the window and I could set the phone flat against the glass, but that is not the direction where the sun sets and the colors paint the sky. In a few minutes, the light was gone and the sky was dark, the hunt was over, and I was back at my desk typing. 

Turning off the lights is an option, but not a practical one, nor one that would be well received by the other colleagues working throughout the suite while I’m monkeying around with a sunset. Knowing there will be a lot of reflections on the glass doesn’t stop me from trying. Year after year, I keep taking and deleting sunset and holiday light photos.

At home and on Facebook, the newsfeed was full of glorious and intensely colored photos of the same sunset I was trying to capture. Had I been in a better position, or not looking through glass, or able to hang out the window and using a proper camera, or any number of other variables, maybe I could have captured the ultimate moment.

Maybe someday I’ll get lucky and get the shot when the sky is most intense.