June gloom

When you think of living in California, you probably think of palm trees, beaches and hot, sunny weather. Well, you’d be right about the palm trees and beaches, but so wrong about the weather. While it’s usually sunny, it’s actually never hot here, that is, if you live at the beach.

If you live in the valley or inland somewhere, surrounded by mountains on all sides, you’ll experience perfectly warm, nonhumid, 85 to 90 degree temps on a weekly basis. You can enjoy long walks after dinner in the warm afternoon breeze, and you’ll be able to float in pools, play in sprinklers and eat dinner outdoors whenever you please.

However, if you live at the beach, things are quite different. Eating dinner outdoors isn’t really possible, unless you want to bundle up in your winter best or go to a restaurant where they have outdoor heaters. Long walks after dinner are often cut short by the chilly breeze biting at your ears, and floating in pools is never really fun when the water is a frigid 60 degrees that refuses to be warmed up by the 69 degree day.

Sorry if I sound bitter. Maybe the June gloom is getting to me. You see, in southern California, we have this thing called June gloom that lasts, well, for the month of June. Thirty days of gloomy, cloudy skies that sometimes turn into sun, but sometimes don’t. Today’s not looking good. (See photo above.) In fact, today looks like the kind of day you’d want to bundle up in a sweater and tuck yourself into the corner of your couch for a Lifetime movie marathon and a glass of hot chocolate. Today does not look like summer. Today looks like blah. And that’s how it makes me feel.

I can’t help it if I want blisteringly hot summer days and ice cream cones that melt down my arms, warm summer nights full of walking and talking and dinners eaten outside to the light of the moon. I want to sit on my steps until the sun goes down in nothing but my tank top and cut offs. I want to swear off any shoes that aren’t sandals. And I want to dive into the icy ocean simply because the beach is too hot.

Unfortunately, with only a couple days clocking in at higher than 80 degrees in Manhattan Beach so far this summer, it doesn’t look like these things will be happening anytime soon. So, for all of you living in places where the nights are hot and the days are hotter, think of me. I’m with you in spirit.