I have a Power Monkey Extreme, a photovoltaic system that is suitable for recharging small personal electronics, for when you are off the grid. Anne gifted me with it last summer. I thought that I would need it on our MUP bicycle ride, because on previous Michigan rides my iPhone was always running out of juice, but the new phone has better battery life and that problem just wasn’t much of an issue this year. Still, it’s a neat gadget to own. It comprises two solar panels and a battery to charge up for power at night. When I first got it, I set it up in a window sill to charge. It quickly charge up to 99%, but then stalled there. Finally, I realized that the LCD display was only sized for two digits. That was high summer though. We are now on the dark side of the equinox divide. Still sitting on the window sill, I lately noticed that the Power Monkey is now only caring an 86% charge. It is really only designed to recharge in full direct sunlight and apparently as the days continue to shorten our sill just doesn’t get enough light to maintain a full charge. I will be curious to see how well the device copes with our continuing diminishing days and what reading it will have at solstice. It will make for a nice little science experiment this winter.