Summer's Back

I can't complain about the mild summer we've had (if I am not mistaken, there were relatively few days with triple-digit temperatures). With less than two weeks of summer left, it looks as though it's going out with a bang. Temperatures rising. And why I decided to ride up the hill and spend most of the day in the Tahoe forest. Grabbed lunch at South Lake Tahoe and it was only 75F degrees. The highest daytime temp I encountered in the mountains was 88F, while the lowest was 72F. Riding back down in elevation (it was a 375 mile day!) I saw 95F degrees in the Sierra foothills as late as 6:30pm.

It is just past 9:00pm and we've barely dipped below 90F outside. Yup. It feels like summer's hanging on a bit longer still.

Hot August Nights

August is around the corner, and we've already experienced a string of 100+ degree temps. However, we will be kicking off the month with high temps in the 80s. Woohoo!

Makes riding under all that protective motorcycle gear a hella more tolerable. The cool delta breezes that come up the Sacramento River from the bay in the evening also helps tremendously.

The Last Summer Weekend

Nobody on the road, nobody on the beach,

I feel it in the air - the summer's out of reach.

Empty lake, empty streets, the sun goes down alone.

I'm drivin' by your house though I know you're not home.

But I can see you, your brown skin shinin' in the sun.

You got your hair combed back and your sunglasses on, baby.

And I can tell you my love, for you will still be strong

After the boys of summer have gone.

- Don Henley

The autumnal equinox falls on September 22, 2008, meaning this will be our last weekend of summer, folks. And sure enough, my silver maple tree's leaves are falling. Time to wave summer goodbye.

Respite from the Heat

We have had mild temps the past few days, staying well below triple digits. The coming work week we'll be in the 90s (today is forecast at 90), and the skies have been much clearer as the delta breezes are here to blow much of the smoke out of the valley.

Fires still continue to burn throughout Northern CA, but many of them are contained to some extent. Thankfully I haven't heard that any new dry lightning strikes have ignited additional fires.

Summer ain't over yet, but I'll keep my fingers x'd that things will smooth out for the latter half of 2008.

Summer Solstice 2008

This was nearly a week ago, but since I have been on a cyber hiatus and pretty much isolated from all things Internet (including email and blogging), I'm posting this now. Yup. The first day of summer passed us by last Friday evening, marking the longest day and shortest night of the year. What was I doing when the summer solstice arrived on June 20th, just shy of 5:00pm PDT?

Getting ready for a night on the town, Flagstaff style. Not whoop-it-up partying, but an evening which began at the Wine Loft for wine and hors d'oeuvres followed by grub at a cafe elsewhere. Casual, as it should be. At 7000' elevation, the temps were pleasant (where the highs were in the mid-80s, not sure about after sunset tho'). It's a college town of around 60,000 population, so it's no surprise that there were plenty of activity happening downtown. It is also admirable that the downtown plaza (outdoors) is family-friendly with food vendors and a portable movie screen set up for a G-rated film (some animated movie was playing this Friday, "Ratatouille" perhaps?).

So enjoy those BBQs while the daylight still extends late into the day!

And Then Comes the Fall

Summer is officially coming to an end... Fall begins on Sunday!

It arrived a little bit early when our weather began to change mid-week (this past week). Today's high was perhaps in the mid-60s - quite unusual for our area. And some rain showers. No matter, since Autumn kicks off with a forecast for a fair day that may reach temps in the low 80s.

Go figure.

I'm not complaining, since I missed out on motorcycling today yet I can still salvage a riding weekend. However, I prefer riding on Saturdays and then taking a sabbatical Sunday to relax (and in my mind at least, to get some errands done around the house... yeah, right).

Summer's Here!

And autumn is little more than a few weeks away.

We are hitting up triple digits, and to top this off we are being treated with bad air as well. I can't complain since the better part of this summer has been relatively mild, even claiming a record low-high of 74 degrees on a day normally registering over 95 degrees (and beyond the century mark).

With this heat, we have thunderstorms in the Sierra range above our Sacramento valley. Science. And Labor Day is just around the corner.