Woman in the Middle

Sunday we had a little rain and some truly cool weather, the first of the season. Our weather has been weird and unpredictable. Since we don’t get snow or ice in our neck of the woods, people dress based on their own comfort level and also based on how much they were ignoring, or just not believing, the weather reports. On Saturday night we were out in shorts and t-shirts and were perfectly comfortable. When it turned cool on Sunday, a lot of us, including me, hadn’t quite caught up with the change in weather.

When I went to the grocery store Sunday Afternoon, I saw every category of dress  people wear in inland So Cal in cool weather.

1. “I actually noticed the temperature and dressed appropriately, because I am cold all the time anyway.” Those are usually women of a certain age and elderly men, who had on long pants, jackets, closed toed shoes, socks, and a long sleeve shirt.

2. “I don’t care, it isn’t that cold.” Those are usually men from teens to 40s who wear shorts, t-shirts and flipflops to everything up to and including funerals.

3. “I am a little chilly.” This category is everyone else and it can include any combination of clothing, but usually falls within one of the following:

flip flops, short sleeve shirt and long pants

flip flops, shorts, and a thin jacket

Shorts, short sleeve shirt, and closed toed shoes (that was me on Sunday, until evening hit, and I threw on a sweater)

Long pants, closed toed shoes, and a short sleeved shirt.

Babies are not included in any of these categories because their parents usually dress them appropriately for the weather. Mom and Dad may be wearing flip flops, but the baby will be dressed for a snow storm.

Youngest Daughter and I wanted to eat at Souplantation a week ago yesterday. Hubby wanted to join us. There isn’t one particularly close to our house. We had two options for Friday night dinner. We could wait for Hubby to get home and fight our way through rush hour traffic to get to the nearest Souplantation, at least a half hour away if traffic wasn’t an issue. Or we could go down and meet Hubby at his work and go to the one that is just a few minutes away. (Have I ever mentioned that we live in a restaurant desert? Even chain restaurants avoid the greater area around where we live like the plague. It is a very frustrating issue with the folks around here.)

Going to Hubby’s, we also have two options. We can drive down, and end up with two cars 45 minutes from home, or we could ride the local commuter train, the Metrolink, and get picked up by Hubby at the station near where he works. If we take the train we can enjoy each other’s company in one car for the rest of the day. As we usually do, we chose the Metrolink.

Commuter rail is still a bit of a novelty here in So Cal. I am sure the people who use it every day don’t find it novel at all. But they are a small percentage of the population. For the rest of us occasional users, it is still a bit of a lark to hop on the train for Los Angeles, Orange County, or the beach.

Of course, we decided to make plans to do this on one of the hottest days of the year. Fun times! Hubby tried to warn us off, as the air conditioning in his car wasn’t working at full chill.  I waved him off. We would be fine. Well, we were fine, but we sure were sweaty! I discovered that when it is over 110, if I move even a little bit, like on a slow stroll through an air conditioned mall, it is impossible to stop the perspiration. Thank goodness, by the time we headed home the sun was going down and the AC in his car had a fighting chance. Whew, what a warm day!

That being said, Youngest Daughter and I still enjoyed Souplantation, and so did Hubby. We had fun at the mall as well. We weren’t going to let the heat stop our fun! Even if that fun was kind of damp…..

By the way, every year, i see more and more people using the Metrolink who are not commuters. There were a number of people, including a whole extended family, who got on the train with us, going all the way to Union Station in Los Angeles. So Cal is figuring out this mass transit thing, I swear!

I like where I live, which is probably a good thing, since I don’t think I will be moving any place else soon. One of the things I like are the hills. I can’t imagine living someplace flat, without brown and green hills dominating the sky line.  Recently I was in the San Fernando Valley, the infamous place in Los Angeles County where “valley speak” originated. That is one big valley and the hills that surround it are so far away, you can hardly see them from the middle of the valley. It seemed very odd that all I could see were houses and businesses and no hills.

Here are a couple of photos of my hills. They were taken from the top of the hill closest to my house. We had a good clear view the day I took the photos, just what we like here in So Cal. So, in addition to my other requirements for where I live (no snow, low humidity, within driving distance of the ocean) I want to add “must have hills.”

I popped out of bed yesterday and put on a lime green Hawaii t-shirt, capris, and flip flops. I was feeling in the mood for a Starbucks run. Well, as I ran out the front door I realized it was foggy and cool outside. Surprise!  I was wearing that outfit because I mistakenly thought the weather yesterday would be like the weather the day before. Silly me.

Later as I was sitting at the computer and a bit of a chill set in, I decided I was wearing my “Ode to Summer” outfit. It was probably one of the last days I would be wearing summer clothes for a while. OK, let me rephrase that. It was probably the one of the last days I would be wearing capris or shorts for a while. If I put on long pants I can still get away with short sleeves and flip flops!

Yep, that it what autumn is like for us here in inland Southern California. The heat starts to ooze away, the plants start to perk up now that the unrelenting sun is tempered a bit, and getting into a car that has been sitting in the sun is no longer like getting into an oven.

I think there are going to be a lot of posts about weather on this blog. I apologize right now for that.

Today is October 5th. It is raining. It has been raining all day. Isn’t this supposed to be our dry season? Isn’t this the time of year when Santa Ana winds blow and fire rages across the landscape?  WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE? Two days ago I was wearing a tank top and flip-flops. Today I was forced to put on socks and closed toed shoes! I really do like cool weather. I just don’t like this crazy lack of transition between seasons.

My younger daughter got stuck with the smaller bedroom and its accompanying smaller closet when we moved into the new house. She asked one day about rotating her clothes into and out of the closet depending on the season. I laughed. It was a brilliant idea that you read about in magazines and see on shows featuring Martha Stewart.   It might even work if you live someplace that doesn’t go from summer to winter in two days. And you know it is gong to get hot again before October is over! Just like we all know that there will be a hot spell in January. So, I told my daughter that the idea of rotating seasonal wardrobes needs to go in the same file as wrapping your garden statuary with tarps in the winter to protect it from the snow. Lovely idea, just not for inland Southern California.

By the way, the title to this post is supposed to be sarcastic. The rain is preventing me from coming up with a better title. Oh, one more thing. We lived in our old house for 22 years. The house we live in now is going to be the “new house” for a very long time!