FALL FORWARD

20 Sept 2017

What was that strange sensation my body was feeling?

It was sometime last evening when I realized I was ... dare I say it? ...  cold!  I was actually shivering and I got up and put on a sweatshirt.  When was the last time I wore a sweatshirt?

Can it be that we have at last survived this abominable summer and are looking at fall?

I checked predicted temps for the rest of the week and there are 3 days at the end with the temp predicted to be in the low 80s (which I used to think of as "hot" and now regard as "pleasant"), but otherwise the temps will be in the middle to high 70s and I may not have to hang up my sweatshirt, but put it to good use.

I don't know how many days over 100⁰ we have had since the first one, but July hit at least 90⁰ every day for the first time since 1877.  I could not find how many days over 100 we have had, as most articles about the heat wave were written in June...and there were certainly a lot of hot, hot days in July and August.

I love spring.  It is a beautiful time around here, with blossoms exploding all over town, and the orchards outside of town looking like clouds of white everywhere. 

The thing I don't like about spring is that it is too short and is followed all too quickly by summer and, with global warming, it seems to get hotter every year.  Climate change deny-ers should come and spend a summer in the Sacramento valley.

But I have to admit that summer in Davis is significantly better than summer in San Francisco.  Here we don't know how many days over 100 we will have, but we know we will have them and so houses are equipped with air conditioning and stores are equipped with air conditioning.

(I remember when we bought our first car here, the first year we lived here, and we opted not to get air conditioning because of the added cost.  "It won't be that bad," I said, optimistically.  Then summer came.  When we bought our next car, the very first thing I wanted in the car was air conditioning!)

Much as I enjoy spring, I love fall because the trees are also beautiful, with the reds and yellows and oranges everywhere and when the leaves finally fall, it is the start of winter, of cold temps, and rain, and my kinda weather.

So I am looking forward to reacquainting myself with my sweatshirts in the near future and enjoying the brisk winds of autumn and looking forward to winter.

Yesterday, I wrote about Pole Line Rd and our memorable trip down that road.  We were trying to figure out when it was and Char said that it had to be 1963 if their baby daughter was along.  I thought Walt had bought the red Tempest convertible shortly before we married in 1965, but he remembers that he got out of the Air Force reserve in 1963 and bought the car shortly after that...so 1963 is probably when it was.

In 2013, I told the story of Walt's old Rambler convertible, the car that hated me. 

You don't want to anthropomorphize inanimate objects, but I still maintain that the car hated me.  And it got angry with Walt when he went off to boot camp and left it for me to use.  It about bankrupted me when it developed brake problems...or at least some disreputable dealer told me it developed brake problems.

I still remember when Walt called from boot camp.  I was so excited to hear his voice (we only had "letters" in those days, so I was writing to him about the problems I was having with the car).  He opened the conversation with "What are you doing to my CAR?" and then went on to berate me for everything I'd done wrong.  I was in tears when I hung up.  I'm sure the Rambler was very satisfied about that!

We left our wedding reception in the Rambler, but only drove it as far as where Walt had parked the Tempest and we left for our honeymoon in that while someone else took the Rambler back to our apartment.