We have hit a steady 57 degrees for the midday high, and that's without wind chill. It's really odd to go through a 14-hour daylight period of time and never be able to tell what time of day it really is. 8 AM looks exactly like noon, which looks exactly like 4 PM. You lose your sense of direction. People stagger a bit. Fog legs are like sea legs. You live in the fog for a while and go to sunny places, and you feel exposed, uncertain, blinded.
In a total display of atmospheric irony, people getting baked to death who live inland in the Central Valley in Modesto or Fresno or Stockton come to the coast for relief and feel refreshed, enlivened and thrilled to have escaped the heat. At the same time, we fog-shriveled coast dwellers jump in our cars and head for the heat, hoping desperately to be able to see our own shadow for a few hours and dry out our clothes and hair.
"Well, I'm layin' out my winter clothes and wishin' I was home, goin' home
Where the New York City winters aren't bleeding me." - excerpt from The Boxer by Paul Simon
I used to listen to that song all the time and wonder what winter clothes were, being a kid growing up in sunny California. I did have a jacket for winter, but a whole set of clothes for the winter season? Nyah...
Now that I've been in Pacific Grove for a while, I wonder if there are anything but winter clothes. I've been wearing the same things every day for the past year except for the time I spent in Hawaii in February. I don't expect to have anything but the shivers for a few more months.
Time to go raid REI for some new summer gloves and maybe a pair of fleece-lined summer pants. It's just part of the specific groove of living here. Fungus Corners, aka Pacific Grove is truly cool. Right on, baby, that's awesome. Warm fuzzy clothes in the summertime.
Posts
2 comments:
Fava beans and artichokes are both grown in the Monterey Bay area and are among my favorite vegetables. (BTW, listen to the Beach Boys sing their song, "My Favorite Vegetable"!)
I'm looking for great fava bean recipes; we have bushels of them this year.
I just learned fava bean pods are edible. They're good sauteed in olive oil with a little broth while the pods are young and the beans under developed. When they're larger, there's a "string" that needs to be removed along the pod's spine before cooking. My favorite is still w/o pod, sauteed in Olive oil with fresh garlic and herbs.
Next question is, how did grandma cook them?
For a local grower of both favas and artichokes:
http://www.oceanmist.com/products/favabeans/fava.aspx
I'm not not sure whether they're an organic farm. -ss
So, Anonymous No. 1 responds to PG's gray, cold summers with a question about fava beans! Anonymous No. 2 wonders what the connection is--that perhaps the coastal cold is sapping No. 1's ability to stay on subject. Or, perhaps it was a sly way of agreeing that PG's gray, cold summers aren't worth a pot of beans. Or something like that....
Post a Comment