Sun Burst

    The air was crisp, the sun was warm, yellow and crimson leaves floated down from the maple tree at the end of my driveway, and two patrol cars pulled up across the street behind my car.  Mmm, interesting.

     I watched from my side porch, pretending to brush my dog, as a police officer got out of each car, put on his gloves and walked down the street.  They split up when they got to the house they were searching for;  one officer went up the driveway and stood guard over the back yard, the other climbed the stairs and knocked on the front door.  No one answered.

    The little drama that never unfolded became boring, and my attention wandered to a glint of light reflecting off of the hood of my car.  It's not unusual for the sun to bathe my car at that time of the morning, but the glare was different this morning. I saw a full spectrum of color radiating from a sunburst;  rays of blue, green, red and yellow exploded from a white, bright core.  I gawked at it for a minute then ran into the house to get my camera.  I knew the sun was about to change position and the colorful sunburst would soon disappear.
   
    By the time I came back out, camera on and ready, the police officers had given up on rousting anybody from their target house and were heading back to their cars.  I had to hurry.  I didn't want to attract any undue attention.  I mean, what's more suspicious than a woman pointing her camera in the direction of  police cars and clicking away?  Unfortunately, time was of the essence and I had none to waste.  I had to risk discovery.

   
    I think I got the picture I wanted, and even from here you can see the colors.  Luckily for me the officers were too preoccupied to notice me and my camera, either that or they saw and decided I wasn't worth further attention.  I went back inside, and they got back in their cars and drove away, and I spent the rest of my morning watching the sun.

    When I first saw the sunburst, the rays of color were longer and more defined.  The sun had moved while I was in the house, and I missed the best photo opportunity.  Still, I was happy with my results.

    I found out that later that night there was an aurora radiating over much of the northeast, and some people had even seen some red light dancing over Maryland.  Apparently the Sun was very active that day.  Extra solar activity equals extra color. 

     I like that.