To those who celebrate, Happy Lunar New Year!
I was born and raised in Northern California. This means that I have spent nearly 40 winters in this state. Is it always this warm in January?!!! It was also my first tsunami warning.
Impossible. December came in like a lion; rain, fog, frost, ice on the car’s windshield. I don’t remember a winter happening like this since I was a kid. The great amount of fog has been sending me into early morning delights (and early morning walks and drives). Getting into the car for those early morning drives is how I know frost happened on the windshield. The windshield wipers kept making that slippery slushy sound over the ice and glass and I was trying to remember what my mom used to do in this situation. Do I Google “how to melt ice off car windshield,” like that time I was in El Cerrito coming down from one of the highest hills in the history ever known to man and Googled, “how to drive down a massive hill?”
Luckily, muscle memory served and I just cranked up the defrost with AC full blast and the frost melted within moments and along with it my surety in that this would be the winter that we’d get snow. Alas, it has been 60°F warm and sunny for the entire week. Spring feels like it’s here early. And I’m not for it. Boo. “Tomato, Tomato, Tomato.”
California received a tsunami warning a few weeks ago. It was retracted by the afternoon. I drove to Point Reyes National Seashore on Sunday (mami’s response, “Are you stupid? Uh huh, ok”). Braving the weekend crowds in order to hike through coastal forest of endless Monterey cypress trees that seem to pour into the sand dunes.
Not gonna lie, between that and the full moon, “the sea was angry that day my friend.” I was getting out of the car when I heard a loud boom! that pierced my eardrums and startled me. I quickly looked up and it was simply the sound of the enormous waves crashing into each other. The water was this arctic glacial type of blue color and the sea mist was thickly tickling my cheeks. I don’t think I was complaining about how warm it was that day either.
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Mami Maisonet
5960 S Land Park #222
Sacramento, CA 95822