Winter In So Cal

The Fuzziest, hammering through the creek at Firestone Vineyard during the MarathonXC


Winter in So Cal is just summer-light. Unless you live at or above four thousand feet, we really don't get seasons at all. Yesterday, the 19th of November, it was NINETY DEGREES. In Ohio, it was "Ass Chappin' Cold"..that from Lydia Brownfield of Kenda. Now, I have had some seriously chapped ass before from long days in the saddle on a 100 degree day...but ass-chappin' COLD? That's gotta suck.

Last night I broke out for an hour slug fest before the sun slipped away, and I must say that is one of my favorite times to ride. The sun is ablaze with the caramelized brown of smog and the powder blue of sunset. It's usually down to a chilly eighty five degrees by then, and some need to bring a light jacket for fear of the temps dropping into the high seventies. brrrrr.




Overlook to the West from Indian Creek Trail, San Diego


I was in my local overpriced coffee establishment, glancing at an old fashioned doughnut that costs as much by itsself as a dozen would at a doughnut shop. Behind me I hear two "metro-sexuals" (read into that what you will) crying that it was "sooo cold today." It's 6:45am, and it is 76 degrees. These boys have obviously never been to a Camp-N-Ride or to a location beyond delivery service of their local Saks Fifth Avenue.
That's winter in Los Angeles. The ladies (see:metro-sexuals) use the guise of winter to purchase another closet full of hundred dollar jeans (with holes) and get soup at the cafe. Cyclists in So Cal use it as an excuse to ride during daylight hours thanks to an average and bearable temp of eighty degrees. Normal summer and spring days necessitate night lights here, as the Chernobyl-like rays of the sun are far to heated to ride during the day.
Winter? Hardly. I promise you I will have my truck's a/c on "meat locker" for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's. My only respite will be when and if it rains, so I may ride through the rain swollen creeks of the Santa Monica's....emerging in Brentwood like some coal miner caked in ash-black and muck. Drivers-by will be awash with fear as they see this leaf-caked freak smiling at them in their Jaguar (see:FORD TAURUS). God I love winter in So Cal.

Chris