Category: weather

Gotta Love an Offshore Flow

Most folks in the Bay (Yay) Area are amateur meteorologists.  That’s due to the fact that the weather here is so freaking, ridiculously, nonsensical.   It’s true that you’re just as likely to need a heavy coat in July as you are in January, and the warmest month of the year is usually either September or October.  We’re surrounded by hills and ocean and bay, so there’s all these little pockets where you never know what might happen.   For the most part, though, it’s usually just about 60, year round, day in and day out.

Then every once in a while, the wind changes direction.  See, that 60 comes from the fact that the wind is blowing in from the ocean, usually bringing cooling fog in with it.  In the summer, the fog is with us in the morning, but burns off in the afternoon for a few hours of decent warmth, before the fog returns in the evening.   That fog is what “they” call the natural air conditioning.   This is more so in The City than in the East Bay where I live, but it’s still not as hot here as in the Central Valley, generally.

However, a few days ago, the winds changed, and are coming out of the East, across greater California, keeping out the cooling fog.  It’s toasty.   I love it.  It’s supposed to be in the 90s in The City tomorrow.  For those of you not so great at math, that’s 30 degrees hotter than normal.  And in the East Bay where I live, it could hit 100.   And to that I say – BRING IT ON!

Just sayin’.

What to Write?

I don’t really have anything to make up a full post today, so here’s a few interesting tidbits:

  • I’m going to the Giants game tonight with Momser.   Matt Cain is on the mound against the Houston Astros
  • It’s unusually warm in The City today, so much so that I saw a man in a kilt.  You know it’s one thing when the women start wearing skirts, but it’s a whole other level of warmth when the men join in.

And that’s all I got folks.  It’s just a slow news day, and I haven’t seen or done anything that I think is worthy of writing about.  I’ve just been having a very average day.

I’m off work tomorrow to do some more quality time with Momser, too.

I hope the faithful readers are having a more eventful week.

Gym Motivation

I thought of a new reason to go to the gym today. I’m not cold at the gym. Working out warms me up like it’s summer. Almost like it’s summer in the central valley.

The thing is, I hate winter. I hate chills, shivering, and I absolutely abhor goose bumps. I hate cold that I can’t escape. Lately, there’s no escaping cold.

It’s unusually cold in California this week. I think the high in Oakland was 47. That’s usually the low. I’ve said before that I think 70 is my personal minimum. Maybe 68. I could deal with a day like today every once in a while, but it’s been two days already, and I think tomorrow will be more of the same. Plus rain. The only thing worse than bitterly cold is bitterly cold and wet.

On top of the cold outside, the heat in the office is lame. Someone from my office calls the maintenance dude every day. I sit on my hands. I take off my shoes and sit on my feet. I wear sweaters over my sweaters. I wear my coat. It’s just ridiculous. It’s inhumane. I’m about to call my boss in New York and tell him that if nothing can be done to fix the heat, then I’m going to insist on working from home. It’s that bad.

So, in the midst of the hellish coldness, it occurred to me that if I was on the elliptical, I wouldn’t be cold. So for the rest of the week, the gym is my blanket. My calorie burning, thigh toning blanket.

What’s That White Stuff Falling From the Sky?

I’m at the folks’ place in Washington for the holidays. I’m working the system pretty well, I think. The boss said, “go ahead and work from home the week following Christmas,” so I’m working from Mom’s home. I got in yesterday. I had to work the after school job through Monday.

Right after we got back from the airport, it started to rain/snow. It was all slushy, and nothing was sticking because of the rain in the mix. On the news last night, they were reporting from a hill in Seattle, where it had actually started sticking. They were saying it was the first white Christmas in Seattle for over a decade, and they showed a little girl building a snowman. It was my first ever white Christmas. It only took 30 years.

Just about 20 minutes ago, it started really snowing, though. I’m sitting here right now watching it fall out the front window. It’s collecting on the trees, the lawn, and the road. I’m glad I don’t have to go anywhere. I did go out and catch a few flakes on my tongue, but that was good enough for me. I’m over it.

holiday-pictures-084.jpg

Sitting here is like the opposite of being in a snow globe.

Indian Summer – My Favorite Time of the Year

Today was one of the awesome, sunny, clear days in San Francisco. These are the kind of gorgeous days that make you forget when you were freezing your nose off in the middle of July in the fog. It was warm, brilliant, and comfortable out in The City today.

I went over to the farmers’ market at the Ferry Building on Embarcadero at lunch. I got a vegan tamale for lunch, and picked up persimmons.

I love the “fall” in the city. It’s funny, though, that in other parts of the country, it’s starting to turn cold, and people are unpacking their sweaters and coats. Here, we never pack up the sweaters or coats, because you’re just as likely to need them in June as you are in January. However, you also never know when you can wear skirts and sandals. I think tomorrow is going to be a skirt and sandal day for me personally. It’s nearly October.

I hope that this October does not disappoint me. It’s usually the warmest month of the year here, but this year has been very off. We didn’t get enough rain over the winter, and then it never got as hot inland as it normally does. It’s normal for it to be barely 60 in The City in August, but not in Concord. I guess only time will tell, but I’m hoping for many more brilliantly warm fall afternoons in San Francisco.

Baby, it’s gorgeous outside.

Weather.com says that it’s only 59 in San Francisco right now.   I don’t know if that’s an accurate reading for Treasure Island.   Where I’m sitting, it feels much more like 70.

Where am I sitting?   On my back patio.   In my reclining canvas camping chair.  I’m in shorts and a tank top.   Slathered up with what’s left of last summer’s SPF 45.  (I’m pale.  What can I say?)   There’s a slight breeze moving the trees.   The grass is green.  My plants, Rhonda, Lola, and Joni, are happy.   Joni even has some flowers.

I have repurposed my cereal cannister to make sun tea.

I took a walk earlier, on the jogging path along the water.   The bay is packed with sail boats, and you can see further than further.   San Francisco, Sausalito, Richmond, Berkeley, Oakland, and further.

Maybe all I really needed was a little sunshine.   Because, for the first time in awhile, I’m exactly where I want to be, and I’m not dreaming of running away.

Life doesn’t stink so bad after all.

And hey, aren’t my friends awesome.    Isn’t my new boyfriend amazing?

I’m Allergic to Winter

Okay, so every day I go to work, and work is in a converted warehouse in the Dogpatch.  (More info on Dogpatch: http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/zpub2000/sfentries&cmd=list&range=0,50&Title~=D&cmd=all&Id=215)   Theres no heat.   There just isnt.   I have a little space heater, but since the power is pretty much rigged together around here with chewing gum, if one of my neighbors in the cube farm turns on their space heaters while I have mine on, we blow the grid.   And even with the heater on, were still in the warehouse with the 30 bazillion foot high ceilings, so the hot air disappears the second that its out of the fan.  So, I spend the better part of the day shivering and chugging hot tea.   Hot tea, of course, quickly becomes iced tea around here.   I own a pair of gloves with the fingertips cut off, my hobo gloves, because I need to type but I also need to be wearing gloves.

 

So, I shiver all day dreaming of a hot shower (with or without Red Stripe) and my warm bed.

 

Last night, however, I did not pass the shower, and collect $200, but instead ventured out to the Motherland (a.k.a. Concord, CA) for dinner with Rob and Jen.   I decided to invite J4, as well.   J4 prefers his mode of transportation much more than mine, so we hopped on Gertrude (yes, he names his motorcycles), and off we rode.   (DONT TELL MY MOM!)   This proved to be a fatal decision.   To say that I was cold when we got home would be the biggest understatement ever known to man kind.   (For another perspective: http://blog.myspace.com/motoproponent)  The only way I managed to finally thaw out was to take a hot shower.  

 

The end result of all this freezing is that my skin is rebelling.   My knuckles are chapped, cracked, bloody, and peeling.  To add to this problem, I drink so much tea to keep warm that I have to keep going to the bathroom, and have to keep washing my hands with the cheap soap they provide us.   (I should bring my own.)   And as of yesterday, I have discovered that there is a rash spreading across my back.    I truly am allergic to this weather. 

 

I am in desperate need of a vacation to some place very warm.   I mean, I’d much rather be having a Red Stripe on the beach than in my shower, any day.  

 

Playlist: Too Much Pressure
By The Selecter

 

Current mood: cold