Tag: weather

Chilling

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Image from Laid Back Camp

That is, feeling a bit cold lately. This is around the time of year when the temperature starts to dip in the Bay Area. Not quite the freezing cold of the Northeast that I grew up with, of course, but just enough where I need the extra layers and the knitted fingerless gloves. Just enough that we have to turn the heater on for a while.

This always reminds me of those days during the Belfry Years when I’d head down to the basement in the dead of winter to work on the Bridgetown Trilogy. I’d put on extra socks and aim the space heater directly towards the underside of the desk to keep my feet warm. I’d have a heavy shirt and a sweatshirt on. I was pretty stubborn about it because the only other place in the house to work was upstairs in the computer nook which was kind of uncomfortable as it was a raised area with only a stool to sit on.

Come to think of it, this is going to be our first winter at the New Digs, so I’m curious as to how cold it’ll get. Thankfully ours is a newly renovated place with central heating and no leaky windows, so at least it won’t be drafty, but I can already tell that it’s going to be just a wee bit chilly nonetheless. We’ve already had a few rainy days come through, and although it can get windy (our street is east-west and is a natural wind tunnel for coastal breezes coming off the Pacific Ocean), it remains warmish inside.

I suppose as long as I stay wrapped up and perhaps nursing a hot tea, I should be okay here in the new writing area!

Summer sun…?

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It’s been a rather gloomy and overcast summer here in San Francisco, more so than usual. Our summers are usually cool, but at the same time we’re never this fogged in. Unfortunately this also makes A and I feel rather listless and sleepy most of the time, so we make sure we go for a walk every now and again, just to move around.

I have heard that it’s supposed to be much warmer this weekend, so I am dearly hoping that is true. I’ll be doing my usual Friday-Saturday opening shifts, but hopefully by the time Saturday afternoon rolls around it’ll be a lovely day.

This weekend also starts the first of three major concerts going on in Golden Gate Park, which we now live much closer to. This weekend is an anniversary show for Dead & Company (featuring former members of the Grateful Dead), next weekend is Outside Lands, and the weekend after that is a post-OL show of Zach Bryan and Kings of Leon. We’re not going to any of these, but chances are very high that we’ll be able to hear most of it just by opening the living room window. All I ask is that no one parks in front of our garage!

That, and maybe some blue sky. Blue sky would be nice again!

Spring Rains and Days Off

Jon ChaissonLeave a comment

Currently enjoying a few days off from work to recharge the batteries, even if we are experiencing quite the spring storm front. I set this up a few weeks ago when it was obvious that I was feeling overtired and fighting allergies and/or a cold so we don’t plan on doing much of anything except doing a few errands, drinking coffee and bingeing on music or history podcasts. Whatever lets me kick back and relax, yeah?

On the writing front, I’d say I’m about a third of the way through the Great Remaster of A Division of Souls, which means I’m definitely on schedule with time to spare, as long as I keep it up and maybe speed up the process ever so slightly. I’m doing pretty well keeping things on schedule, but it still feels a little erratic to me, especially when I’m still allowing myself to get too distracted by the usual ‘just doing this for a few moments, I’ll be right back to work oh shit how is almost 8pm already’ nonsense. It’s all a part of learning and relearning how to focus.

Too Darn Hot

Jon ChaissonLeave a comment

It’s been uncomfortably hot here in San Francisco the last couple of weeks, seeing record temperatures and ridiculously clear skies. Thankfully I work in a place where temperature regulation is kind of important, so I’m spending most of the day inside where it hovers somewhere at a comfortable sixty degrees or so.

Unfortunately, Spare Oom has been a bit of a sauna at times, meaning I can’t always get a lot of work done until it cools off in the evening. Which means revision work on Theadia is falling a bit behind, but I’m not too worried about it. It’ll get there when it gets there.

It did remind me of my Boston days, especially when I lived in the Shoebox, which could get unbearably hot and stuffy during the summer even when the window wide open. The Allston apartment was a bit better, given that it was a north-facing apartment and thus never got direct sunlight, but without any AC it could still get uncomfortable. Those days I’d usually hang out elsewhere, like at a library or a record store until sunset, then stay up far too late enjoying the cool of the evening. And of course there were the summers in the Belfry…I’d often start my writing sessions after dinner when it was already cooling off.

Mind you, this is not normal weather for San Francisco. We’re more known for being firmly stuck in the upper fifties and low sixties on the good days, with the addition of consistent fog cover out here in the Richmond District. From what I hear, the weather will be dropping back down soon enough, then I’ll feel comfortable back here again.

That time of year again…

Jon ChaissonLeave a comment

Y’all know how I feel about autumn, heh.

The teens have returned to the neighborhood schools, which of course means twice a day, five days a week, for about fifteen to twenty minutes, twenty to thirty of them come into our store all at once and cause chaos. Some of them are just fine, some of them are troublesome, and many of them are blissfully unaware of their surroundings or how flipping loud they can get. I don’t mind them myself, but those two short stretches of time can suddenly make an otherwise calm day extremely stressful.

But I digress.

The weather here in San Francisco has definitely started its yearly changes. Our weather patterns are a bit weird compared to other places, even locations a short distance away in the East Bay. It might be humid and hot, or it might be chilly and dry, or it might be overcast, or it might be a rare moment of sunny warmth. Sometimes all of that within the span of twenty-four hours. We don’t get the glorious foliage that New England gets, but we do get the lovely colors of late-blooming flowers and the stunning oranges and reds of sunsets. [We do get the lovely blooming of cherry blossoms in the spring, so I’ll definitely take that as a plus.]

I think I’ve finally adjusted to this sort of thing, to be honest. I love a weekend walk through Golden Gate Park or Crissy Field, or even a trip down the other end of Clement Street to the local farmer’s market. And now that we have our garden plot, I even enjoy getting dirty with the weeding and deadheading and watering.

Autumn Sundays, as always, feel like the winding up of a relaxing weekend, and needing to prepare for the coming Monday. Even now, even when I have the occasional day off (like today), I spend Sundays prepping my blog posts and making vague plans for the week. What should I work on? When should I do the laundry? Do I need to do any local errands? It’s certainly not the frantic last-minute of doing homework I should have done Friday afternoon (I was notorious for that), but some days it comes close.

Still, it’s always been my favorite time of year, and I embrace it each and every time.

Wintertime

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Back in the early 00s, I made it a point to head down to my basement writing nook to get my words done, whatever the weather. I would do this even in the dead of winter, bundled up in layers and a small space heater pointed directly under the desk at my feet. Nothing could stop me from getting my daily thousand words done!

Okay, maybe there were a few days when it was just too cold to stay down there. Those were the days when I’d use the family computer upstairs tucked away in the kitchen pantry. It was a bit uncomfortable as the only chair there was a stool and I slouch terribly when I sit, and I wasn’t always as productive, but at least I was warmer.

Nowadays I’m here in Spare Oom, and it’s one of the coolest rooms in the house at any time of year. The one window faces north so it never gets direct sun, and if there’s any breeze coming off the bay, it hits me first. This is fine during the summer, but in the winter my fingers can get a bit numb. Right now it’s 49 F, I’ve got the floor radiator on, and I’m wearing my house sneakers and the sweater A knitted for me. I’m about to head into the kitchen to make a other pot of coffee in hopes that it’ll help me warm up.

Sure, I’m lucky, considering we don’t get snow, nor does it drop below 40 degrees. No unplowed roads and crappy visibility. (Imagine if it did snow here…this city would be the king of cars-sliding-sideways-down-hilly-streets-and-crashing-into-each-other videos.) I definitely don’t miss any of that at all. We just get a biting chill that we feel in our bones because of the winds coming straight from the Pacific Ocean. One unexpected plus to wearing a pandemic mask outside is that it doubles as a muffler during days like this!

Still, it’s nice to be in a warm room, bashing away at the PC as I try to make those daily words.