Fall Morning Chill

You can tell it is Fall because its cold in the morning. Low 50's. The sun warms it back up again, but we're not getting that searing heat anymore. It just reaches the slightly sweaty level if you're working hard. I leave my window open for the fresh air, and because I like that connection to nature. During the night, as the chill comes on, I shift deeper under the comforter, gradually curling into a ball. The cold is refreshing, a change from the long months of hot nights of the summers here. Fall is my favorite time of year. Its a fine season for Classical Music and creative efforts. Summer is heat and Jazz is best for that, but Fall is all about the Brahms, Schubert, Dvorak, and Beethoven.

Sure, after the sun comes up it starts warming up fast, but the shadows hold a distinct chill and the wind blows down into those shadows from the north, sometimes dry, often damp from the ocean. One of the facts of California is that a storm is about 4 hours from being detected at the coastline to hitting the Sierras and potentially dumping snow. That's about halfway through a serious hike, right when you're tired and eating lunch. Usually up something treacherously steep because it is challenging enough in good weather and offers a great view, and sharp exposure to breezes and rain and potentially snow. My hike this summer up to Loch Leven Lakes would be dangerous this time of year, if only because real weather could blow in.

This is Lower Loch Leven Lake. Pretty, but surprisingly small too. This looks amazing but its about 200 yards across and about 400 yards long. And less than 4 yards deep for most of it. It was mostly a pond on top of a mountain. Very pretty, and a hard climb up due to 800 feet vertically worth of scrabbling over boulders and tree roots. But picture that with a snow storm suddenly showing up and having to scramble down, even as the snow gets heavier and the storm intensifies? Not so nice. I don't carry a tent and winter jacket during summer hikes, but serious storms happen and they have trapped and killed people before. The Pacific is an ironic name, after all. Its utterly violent and so huge all sorts of things can come out of it. Including 27 foot long great white sharks used to swallowing full grown 10 foot long elephant seals whole. Those liked to rest on the beaches where I grew up. They're bitey too. They put up signs to warn you off the beach when they take up residence.

Fall on the coast means even stronger icy wet winds from the north, sometimes fog and wet mist that makes you damp and cold very fast, sometimes bright sun and sharp froth on the sea between huge breakers surging onto the shore. Beaches are often short with a tall cliff. Great protection from tsunamis, of course, since those are worst where the continental shelf is longer sloped and the wave energy can build. Sharp drop offs? Not so much. Cliffs stop them dead. I always make a point to live too high for a tsunami, even a big one, to reach me. I also don't live on a coast because just because we don't have hurricanes there NOW doesn't mean we haven't in the past and won't in the future. And I've seen the evidence of hurricanes in the rock record from over 100,000 years ago. And more recently, a few thousand years before we started burning coal. So much for "abrupt" climate change being caused by people. The Climate Cultists should just go die. They don't want to know the science or the history. Its INCONVENIENT to their claims and totalitarian ambitions. Upside of geology is I know the facts and they can't con me. Just wish the general public would stop funding the Klimate Kultists.

Inland, the weather is way more like I remember as a child. More moderate summer heat, chilling Fall weather, occasional rain. Winters with snow, and hopefully lots of rain is what is needed to fix most of the local drought. This brings me hope we'll see some this year. I don't need massive flooding, just proper rain and some snowpack. Give the tourists a long ski season. And me an excuse to make delicious soup. Soup makes me happy when it's cold like this. Maybe bake a ham. Sometimes the price on those is really good. $12 for about 8-10 pounds and sandwichy goodness? Also, pieces of ham are great in soup, several different kids. Like split pea or lentil. I mostly gave up on lentil because it makes me really bloaty, but if you can tolerate it, more power to you. And I've got acorn squash to use, and soup is one of the better options for that. I do love to cook, and having an excuse to do it makes me happy.

See? I'm not that complicated.