Beachy

Nice day, how about a visit to Mad River Beach?  Sunny and pretty warm here but you can't predict the beach--likely it's cooler and maybe windier.  So experience teaches.

Turns out we'd moved to San Diego without moving.

First of all, the place was full of cars.  The ocean access parking lot was overfilled, the road had parked cars back to the turnoff to Mad River (where the huge expanse of asphalt parking lot was still flooded.)

The beach therefore was a good deal more populated than usual.  And what a sight for a North Coast beach: lots of people in bathing suits on beach blankets and frolicking in the surf.  I've never seen anything like it.  Here.

Among those on the beach seemed to be a lot of students, and given HSU's recruitment orientation these days, probably from southern California.  They must have felt right at home.  But where is home?

There was no wind, and the sun was hot.  It was hot on the ocean beach.  It felt like at least 80.  No need for even the light windbreaker I brought.

So this collision of feelings: This is great!  This is way weird!  I've felt it before in the past few years, but never so sharply.

Officially it was a record-breaker at 74 degrees F.  And as it turned out, it was also a record-breaker in San Diego, where it was officially 84.

It could be ascribed to just the usual unusual weather, I suppose.  Except that it's happening a lot.  And then there's the beautiful linden tree next door.  It's usually the last to shed its leaves in the winter, and the last to turn green again in summer.  But its all green and leafy now.

If I were Thoreau, who kept a careful record of all such things where he lived, I could provide exact dates.  So I don't know for sure.  But it certainly seems early.