Dreamlike world
Sunset drive
Everything I ever knew about weather has changed. Everything I know about seasons, changed.
I find myself weighing differences between places and people and wondering if I find myself or my home superior.
It’s hot. Been over that before. Really miss the rain. Feel like I’m going to shrivel up in the heat. Spend more and more time in some bizarro parallel world where I spend most of my time indoors, in relative cool, go into the car, where the air may or may not be turned on, and then to work, where it’s definitely cold. I can, if I choose, live in a world of complete cool. As long as I never want to be outside.
I find myself asking people how long it stays hot. Oh, we can expect this to be over by October.
October. Most years at home, we could expect it to be lovely and cool, the leaves turning. My experience here last year was that the leaves didn’t really turn until December. And spring started in February and March.
This is why I don’t know what’s supposed to happen next. I don’t think even a full year spent in this other world will help. I think I’ll need a few years to pit against 20-odd years in beautiful, seasonal Michigan. Michigan was predictable in its unpredictability. You don’t like the weather? Wait five minutes. Where there was danger of tornadoes, here it’s earthquakes, wildfires and heatstroke. I don’t know dry. It’s amazing to me that fires can be set off by something as simple as a vehicle off-roading.
We’re having a longer-than-usual stretch of 100-plus weather. Oh, it only lasts for a couple of weeks, usually, I’m told. Then it’s just plain hot, as opposed to f*ing hot.
People tell me the almost-constant rain during the winter was “the most rain we’d seen in a while.” But I won’t know if that’s true until this upcoming winter. Perhaps we’ll get more rain than usual, again. Perhaps I’m the rainbringer.
Only I’m not doing a very good job.
Everyone always says they like midwestern falls. I like the fall there because the smell in the air is football. Pow! But then the leaves turn all too quickly, it’s winter, football season ends, and all you have to comfort yourself are gray skies, naked trees and a three-foot snow drift.
More of a spring girl myself. That leads its way to summer. I can get used to the nice long springs here–it was heavenly. But this heat for months on end, no rain in sight, yeah, that’s got to go–I’m with you there. Though it makes it much easier to work out outdoors with the lower humidity.
I hear what you’re saying about the dryness. In 1999, I spent a couple summer months studying near Madrid. All was dry, looking grey and cracked beige, which blended with the architecture. Trees managed to survive this hell-on-earth, when you don’t want to be out in late afternoon, and you understand why seista is necessary — indoors, out of heat’s way. When I came home and walked on my campus, along the Red Cedar, I realized how much I missed the green, the plush of ample plants. Of course, that’s spring through fall.
As for winter, I just detest after the holidays. Then we go into slush mode, and go around chanting ‘when will it end’.
I think it’s dry everywhere. I can’t remember the last time it rained here. The grass is turning brown. But here, I won’t complain about the hotness or dryness. Because winter comes too soon here. And it’s not even really winter with its snow and cold. It’s just damp and coolish. Miserable. But I hear what you’re saying about the seasons. My favorite time of year is the fall. And I look forward to watching the leaves turn … and then fall to the ground.
You know, siesta sounds like a really good idea. I wonder why Californians haven’t championed that. Probably because all of California isn’t hellishly hot.
The sunset photograph is beautiful — particularly how the reflection in the pond plays with the contrast of the trees.