The hot days of endless summer - heat waves - are not over yet here in Southern California. I'm so done with this weather. I simply long to wear sweaters, and to really enjoy hot cups of coffee in the morning, and to take walks with my dog in the rain. (Who cares if she gets a little wet. I'll shampoo her once we're back in the house.) Here we rarely need or wear coats. Maybe to attend Mass of Christmas Eve, maybe if it ever snows again in the high desert where people still own furs, maybe at the beach when the wind is kicking up.
Yesterday was the Autumn Equinox. From now on the days will get shorter, the nights longer. But there are no leaves changing color or falling here. They are fried, with burn spots, and yellow from water being the answer to heat. I got a plum tree that is barely holding on. My sunflowers even suffered.
The worst thing about the heat is that my productivity suffered, as did my concentration and my willingness to be physical just about anywhere besides the pool.
The pools were open at great expense to the tax payers, as hardly anyone uses them. I went swimming a half dozen times and then, while the heat still seared, they closed.
All summer I tried to shower less, shutting off the water while I soaped and shampooed, and I flushed less too. Yet in my neighborhood there were a number of people who were still out there, against the latest rules, watering every single day. Their idea was that they could afford the water. Their idea wasn't that they need to preserve water for other uses, such as farming and drinking.
While there is always talk about desalinization (removing the salt from ocean water) plants along the California Coast, well, they may as well be talking about more nuclear power plants. Meanwhile the wind farms along the high way out to Palm Springs seem to function on most days, so there still must be some wind cooling things off.
All this said, I reserve the right to complain about too much rain and cold later in the year!
