This corner of the world at this time - around 3:30 on a Friday afternoon in November - was perfectly furnished with a broadloom of powdered snow crawling up the slope, a canopy of trees to filter the light the way wind chimes interpret the wind, and a portrait of the clouds smothering the last of the sun's rays. Don't take pictures while you're driving. But if you always wait for the safest moment, you'll miss a lot. Even this facsimile doesn't do the real thing justice. It's just a symbol. The way the periodic table of the elements suggests the minerals hiding in the ground.