I don’t know about all that, but what I know is that the weather today was absolutely beautiful, and if it could just stay this way always, I would love it.

And can we take a second to acknowledge ya boy’s skills? Taking a selfie while riding a bike? I mean, come on.

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Back To Work

After a two-day break, I resumed work on the firepit. I moved all of the excess dirt so I could see how much I needed to raise the blocks, and then I carefully relaid each block, making sure they were all level. I went through more of my gravel pile than I had hoped I would, but there was no way I was getting through this project without buying gravel.

As I’ve been able to think about what I did today, I’ve realized that the blocks are still too low. I’ll have to raise them even more tomorrow. That’s annoying.

A Dog Is A Big Responsibility

My next-door neighbor’s dog barked at me all fucking day. It’s an ugly, shitty-ass little French Bulldog that they obviously bought on a whim back when Frenchies were trendy, and now they can’t be bothered with it, so they leave it outside all day.

A while back, I realized that it wasn’t just barking, it was barking at me. If I make any noise in my backyard, it starts barking. The neighbors have a bunch of boxes stacked along the wall between our houses, and it climbs up on top of them to bark at me over the wall. I got fed up early on in the day and squirted the little shit with a spray bottle. If I did that to my dog, he would stop doing whatever he was doing and run away. It did absolutely nothing to discourage this little fucker, though. It just bit at the water between barks. Why don’t people teach their dogs manners?

Sailor’s Delight

As I was cleaning up this evening and putting my shovel away in the shed, I turned around and saw this stunning sight. Will it ever get old?

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Then, something changed. Or, maybe nothing changed, and I just figured out the way things actually were. Whatever the case, I realized that summer actually sucks. It’s hot, there’s bugs, and everywhere is crowded. It doesn’t help that I feel ill when the temperature gets above 80º, either.

It’s easier to get warm when it’s cold than cool down when it’s hot. I sleep better in winter than I do in summertime. The air is cleaner in winter than in summer, too.

The weather in February alternates between a few days of rain followed by a few days of sunshine and scattered clouds. It’s those sunshiny days that I look forward to, particularly in the afternoon. Today, I walked to the grocery store. I took the long way home and walked through the park. Everything is more vivid in winter. The plants that aren’t deciduous are vibrantly green, the sky is bluer, and even the asphalt on the road is blacker after the rain.

I love walking in winter on days like today, especially walking west into the cold onshore breeze. The air is cool and clean. It feels exhilarating on my skin and revitalizing when I draw a breath deep into my lungs. Bonnie thinks I’m nuts when we go out walking, and I want to slow down and take in the winter air. She just thinks it’s cold.

It comes and goes so quickly. January is usually unseasonably warm. Well, I guess it’s not unseasonable if it happens every year. When I was a kid, we always had a week of minimum days in the middle of January as one term ended and another began. It was always in the 70s that week, which made for the perfect weather for hiking and playing outdoors. Now we have wildfires. That’s new.

It’s not until February that winter really arrives. Before March is out, though, it will all be over. The chill in the air will be gone. The puffy marshmallow clouds will disperse into the thin streaks of white that accompany the Santa Ana winds, and the temperature will begin its slow, inevitable climb.

So, I’ll just enjoy it while I can, like I do every year, and hope that when the ice caps have melted, the sea levels rise, and the climate finally settles, I’ll get to keep my February weather and maybe even get a couple more weeks of it. That seems less and less likely every year, though.

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I sat down on my front porch to drink a cup of tea this morning, and the neighborhood was dead silent save for the mariachi music coming from the house across the street. It was a reasonable volume, though, so it didn’t detract from the morning’s ambiance.

That’s Enough With The Ambiance, Get To Work

There are two types of weather during which I most enjoy puttering in the garage: When it’s pouring rain outside and on beautiful, mild days like today. So, I spent the day cleaning up the mess out there. Apart from a few larger items, everything has a home now. I even came up with a clever spot for my roll of butcher paper that keeps it out of the way while still being accessible. In the process, I busted my thumb.

I was trimming a piece of plywood when the table saw kicked the wood back at me. I thought maybe it was broken at first, but I don’t think so now. The worst part about a hand injury is the days of not being able to fully use your hand afterward. I’m just glad this time it wasn’t an open wound. Those always make working harder when you’re trying not to get dirt and sawdust in it while trying not to bleed on everything.

Where Did That Scar Come From?

I will likely forget about my injury before long, but I know I will remember how beautiful today was for a long time to come. I hurt myself all the time, but days like today are few and very far between. I know that’s what makes them so special, but I refuse to believe I need a month of hurricane-force wind, wildfire, cold, heat, or rain to appreciate a day like today. Days like today stand on their own.

We capped this beautiful day with a delectable dinner of chicken piccata that Bonnie made. We ate al fresco to savor as much of this glorious day as we could. In a few days, the weather will turn to rain. In a few months, it will warm up, and the goddamned fucking mosquitos will besiege the yard and force us to sequester ourselves indoors until November. Then, the wind will return. Bad weather is as reliable as a good friend, but fair weather is no-nonsense shylock. You fuck with him, and he’ll break your fuckin’ thumb.

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Never mind that the Hughes fire was even further away than the Palisades fire or that the wind wasn’t blowing nearly as strongly as it was two weeks ago. It was upwind, and the smoke polluted the skies above us, so I could kind of understand the alarm. More so than two weeks ago, anyway. At least this time, there is evidence that a fire is burning somewhere.

The fact remains, however, that Simi Valley is in no real danger of burning. We’re not going to have hurricane-force winds like we did two weeks ago. The Santa Ana winds will blow like they do every year in mid-January through tomorrow, then they will subside, shift from the west, it’ll rain over the weekend, and then this fire season will finally officially be over. Then, we can focus our attention on the flooding and mudslides.

I just wish people would familiarize themselves with their surroundings, climate, weather patterns, and the natural rhythms of the place they live. It’s incredibly liberating. When you understand what is and is not a threat to your safety, it frees your mind to focus on what’s actually important. And then, I won’t have an endless stream of notifications from people asking if they need to evacuate from a fire burning 40 miles away.

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To read the posts on Nextdoor and Ring’s Neighbors app, you couldn’t be blamed for thinking that Simi Valley had descended into the seventh layer of Hell. It seems everyone in Simi desperately wants to be a part of the chaos and drama unfolding in Los Angeles. One woman asked if we could see the Palisades fire from here. Where the fuck does she think Pacific Palisades is in relation to us. wElL, iTs oNlY tHis fAr aWay oN tHe mAp .

Of course, the vast majority of posts were complaints, inquiries, and updates about the power outages all over town, but there are quite a few who seem to think that Simi is in grave danger of burning.

This Ain’t Those Fire Snakes From Super Mario Bros 3

Regarding the fire in Sylmar, one man said, “With these winds it can go in any direction!” No, it can’t. It can’t go in any direction. The wind is blowing south, which means the fire will travel south as well. Someone else asked how we’ll know when we need to evacuate. Evacuate from what?

During the Woolsey Fire, my neighbor told me he packed up his RV “just in case.”

“Just in case of what?” I asked.

“The fire.” He said.

The fire burning to the south of us? That’s the fire that you packed up your RV for?

Where There’s No Smoke, There’s No Fire

I don’t know if these people are new to the area, if they’ve never paid attention to the weather here, or if they just don’t understand how fire works. When the Santa Ana winds blow, they blow from the north and northeast. That means if fire is south or west of Simi Valley, Simi isn’t in any danger of burning. If the hills to the north or east of us are burning, then there is a danger to the city. There are no fires to the north of us. A clue is if the sky is blue, the fire ain’t coming toward you. The fact that there hasn’t been any smoke over Simi Valley all week should be reassuring that we’re not in any danger, I would think. I guess not.

I think it’s safe to say that we can expect disasters like this to happen with ever-increasing frequency and devastation in the coming years because we’re never going to get climate change under control. People don’t understand what climate change is or how to stop it because you can’t understand climate if you don’t understand basic weather patterns. Well, at least the rising seas will leave less land to burn.

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