Phenom

People have seen icy puddles before. I grew up in northern Illinois, where icy puddles were the norm in late autumn. In fact, an icy puddle in January is the usual in many parts of the world. So forgive me for showing you this picture of something you've seen a million times.

But an icy puddle at Hahamongna Watershed Park in Pasadena, California on January 13th, 2013 at 1:27:08 pm is momentous. A record should be kept. A notation must be made. This should be posted, publicly, for future generations to see in some archive somewhere.

You will not be surprised that upon our return an hour later, the ice was gone.

Global Colding

The guy on the radio said we might have frost on our windshields tomorrow morning. 32 degrees is our predicted overnight low. That's considered freezing on the Fahrenheit scale.

Frost. Pasadena.

For yesterday's dog walk, John wore a woolen scarf around his neck. He also wore shorts, but still, something's not right.

These old houses--okay, this old house--is porous. I've never been crazy about dusting (warn me if you're coming over) but the cool breeze floating in around the window frames is even more disconcerting than the particles it brings with it.

Our heater works, so we'll have ourselves some winter and I'll cozy up indoors at the window. The skies are inordinately clear. The mountains rise, sharply, to meet the blue. The clouds are so towering as to inspire religion.

But doesn't it seem unusually cold for Pasadena?