The Cold Hard Truth

It is staying warmer longer at night these dog days, and that is not a good thing. Not fun at all. No.

Mmm…slower coolingsdown. If only we’d been warned, educated, and/or informed….

I remember in school, when teachers would explain the seasons to us kids, and describe how during summer, the days feel longer, the nights shorter. Well…the nights now feel shorter because it’s so friggin’ warm. We are having long, warmer days in 2021, because the temperature transition between afternoon and evening is disappearing and the advent of the long hot day and night is here. It was a hard-fought 75 degrees here in Walnut Creek last night. Down from day-long warmth that capped at a dry 95 degrees. It might have barely dipped into the 60s overnight for a hot sec. (Ha! See what I did there?)

It is about 10:30 in the morning now and it is already 80 degrees. It is expected to max out at 88 91 – but we’ll see (the Diablo Hills area likes to impress). Sorpresas te da la vida, and life (on Earth) is serving all kinds of sorpresas these days. Just ask the East Coast and the German, the Belgian, and the Dutch.

The day after tomorrow is today. This heat, these temperature fluctuations and non-fluctuations are all-too real right this second. They are happening. And get this: While it scorches out in the East Bay, San Francisco proper is miles away, yet in another cooler/gloomier/windier world (I’d never had believed these things had I not experienced the diff twice this past week) – such is that microclimate life.

What is happening on the planet is happening. We can and must adapt or we can let it happen to us. We can get right and ready or we can watch our kingdom crumble under the weight of our collective greed, ignorance, and incompetence. We can commit to the right priorities or we can keep arguing about like, the efficacy of masks during an ongoing worldwide pandemic that disproportionately continues to affect the most vulnerable and the least hooked-up, or profiling and harassing delivery people in Pacific Heights, or acting the racists fools at Victoria’s Secret.

What is happening on the planet is happening to all of us. We don’t have the luxury of time anymore (extreme heat is not a joke).

Our choices, our world. And that is that.