R U OK?

Saw the fires -- R U OK -- you can come to our house if you need a place -- dogs are welcome too!

That’s the email I received on Saturday from a colleague. It wasn’t until we’d exchanged a string of emails yesterday that I realized how close she was to the Diamond Bar fires shortly after she offered up her place.

I’m in Ventura County; she’s in the OC. But as I looked up at a gray sky all weekend and smelled the air, when it comes to Santa Ana winds and the fire season, we’re all in it together.

I’m tired of the Southern California fire season. I’ve lived here for decades and I know that global warming isn’t a joke. Saturday was November 15th for goodness sakes!

I don’t need to watch You Tube clips from VIP global warming seminars with factoid-fanatic experts droning over their PowerPoint slides showing 30 years worth of rising temps. I can feel it on my arms and legs still clothed in short-sleeved tee-shirts and cropped cotton pants, sans a sweater even at night.

Last weekend the temperature was in the 90’s. Friday I thought I was going to scream with humidity in the single digits. Not only has driving become impossible, don’t get me started on that, but the weather has pushed me round the bend.

Today I heard a weather person report with joy that it’s going to get cooler. Today will be 90 degrees. Cool and 90 do not belong in the same sentence.

Here’s an article from Huffington Post by a fellow Californian that shares my sentiments. If you like your posts filled with factoids rather than crazed rants, check it out.

Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain

See what I woke up to. Is this beautiful weather or what? My husband couldn’t play tennis this morning. Why? One word - wet!

Yesterday, November 1st, like clockwork, the weather changed. I turned on my windshield wipers. I took care driving on street surfaces mixed with oil, dirt and just a dollop or two of water. The recipe for skids.

For those of you who live in four seasons and think I’m nuts, SoCal has finally moved, like the clock, into another zone and some of us who long for cable knits rather than cut-offs are praising the gods. My sunscreen tube sacrifice must have paid off.

My eyes have been bathed in cool moisture and gray clouds. My sun-parched soul is refreshed. Ye, though I walk through the valley of the sun later in the day, my brain knows I can wear my long sleeved shirts once again.

What will I do when the election is over?

Liz O. Baylen Los Angeles Times

Where will my obsessions turn next? How about next summer’s heat level and electricity rates in California?

A true neurotic will always find something to worry about. Never fear. As we wait to see who will be president and if it will ever rain again, I wonder how I’ll deal with a return of this summer’s no AC policy. Who cares if we saved tons of money and shrunk our carbon footprint? My personal thermostat is ruined forever.

I was hanging on by my sweaty fingernails (yes, mine were sweating, that’s how bad it was) until those first few leaves of pale gold and cranberry. Heck, it’s almost November. I think I heard a Christmas commercial last night. Where’s my humidity? Can’t I have a cloud or two? Have we gone from semi-arid to full blown desert?

Alright, I’ll step back from the computer. The rant is done for now. I can’t stand the heat, that’s all, okay?

I’ve lived in Southern California for lots of decades. I’ve seen the summer snaking its way beyond the autumnal equinox. But it turns out I was not imagining that October has been way too crispy. Seems like we had some kind of record going on. Just sign me up for the climate change ‘canary in the mine’.

According to a recent article by Hector Becerra in the Los Angeles Times, “Sultry October shaping up as our lost summer”, this October has been the second-hottest one since 1877. The average downtown LA temperature was 84.3 degrees. Which means at least 10 degrees more where I am. We’ve had 8 months of no rain and one of the driest falls. I was right. Overheated but right.

But that still leaves those future summer months of no AC usage lurking. And if they don’t go away soon, they’ll be back before I’ve had a chance to complain about freezing as I run from the movie theatre to the car in my cotton sweater.

I need to sneak away to Seattle to detox from too much sun. Better yet, is there a rain drenched fellow canary who wants to house swap?