Sad to Say Good-bye to Summer

With only three official days of summer left, I am desperately trying to cling to them. 

This summer has been extremely warm across the world (pray tell Global Warming) and Southern California has been no exception.  Over the past few months, Los Angeles has been having a consistent heat wave.  It has been one of the warmest summers that I have experienced in almost two decades of living at the beach and I LOVE IT.

The hot and balmy days bring me back to my youth.  I would choose to be hot and sweaty then bundled up and freezing any day of the year.  I don't mind sleeping tangled up with cool sheets -- one leg in and one leg out -- with the fan blowing on me full blast.  What? No A/C?  Nope, no such thing down here at the beach.  Why would you because 99% of the time there is no need for it.

Don't get me wrong; Southern California is always warm and we really won't even experience fall until close to Christmas.  However, most summers, once the sun starts to set the winds pick up and almost always -- at least close to the beach -- a sweater or light jacket is mandatory.

When I first moved out here in 1994, I arrived in early July.  I was shocked at how cool it got at night and the recurring marine layer which made it gray and dreary until it burned off about noontime.  

On one of my first dates with Jason, I got bundled up as though we were going to the North Pole.  At the time, Jason drove a Jeep and, since it was summer time, he had the soft top off.  He pulled up to my apartment and helped me to clamber into the front seat.  (Luckily, dressy shorts were in style then as well so I didn't have to worry about my dress creeping up.) 

But you could have knocked me over with a feather when he handed me a giant winter parka to don.  I looked at him like he was crazy and he just said in his surfer boy accent, "You're gonna be cold."

Well that was an understatement and by the time we arrived in Santa Monica for movie and a dinner, I looked like I just stepped out of a hurricane simulator.  Although I was grateful for the warmth of his coat.

Lucky for me, the Jeep was soon replaced by a 1968 Porsche which came with a whole other set of driving dilemmas but that, my friends, is another story for a different day.

But yesterday, the change of seasons was suddenly evident and, when I woke up, there was an unaccustomed chill to the air. Sadly, I realized that this wonderfully warm summer was drawing to an end and, when I looked to the calendar, I realized that the first day of Autumn is this coming Saturday. 

I suppose it is true what they say that all good things must come to an end but I am trying to make myself feel better by telling myself that there is always next year.