Sunrise

Good morning this is Renee Montagne and this is NPR’s Morning Edition.

From Anchorage this is Steve Heimel with your Alaska Morning News. The trial of Senator Ted Stevens begins today… In Anchorage, the time is now 7:05am. Sunrise today is at 7:50am and sunset is at 7:50pm.

Oh, how I trusted NPR to be always accurate and correct. When I listened to NPR every morning in high school the announcers never lied. But here in Alaska, they are not to be trusted! Saying that the sunrise is at 7:50am this morning. Pshaw, it certainly was not! Nope, I was definitely walking to work this morning in the dim pre-dawn light. For sure, the sun rose 14 minutes before the first bell rang, at 8:36am.

There are two odd things about Alaska. The first is that the state is simply enormous.  The second is that despite its enormity the entire state has only one time zone.  And even though part of my school district borders Russia and the International Date Line (Oooh, does this mean I now have foreign policy experience?) Alaska is surprisingly only 4 hours time difference from the East Coast.  The significance of all this? A month ago, I had beautiful sunrises as I was walking to work, while now I have beautiful sunsets that I see as sit in my classroom planning my lessons.