January in California's Central Valley

It is January in California's Central Valley. A new year has started. The weather continues to be pretty balmy. A week a go I was out with gloves on to do my 2.5 mile walk in the morning. This week there really isn't that much cold.

I feel for the folks on the East Coast. Many had hoped for a white Christmas and got much more. Their intense cold harkens back to time I have spent in the snow in the winter. I was skiing at 20 degrees and below and realized that I was creating my own wind chill as I scooted down the slope.

The 49ers are once again in the playoffs and had to tolerate the Green Bay weather conditions. Even their fan base did not jump at a chance to "be" there when their team played. The NFL in its rules almost block out the local TV coverage to their playoff game.. reason... those legendary fans whose season tickets are handed down through families did not want to suffer the pain of such extreme cold when they could see it at home in the company of brews and brats. It was really too cold to have a championship game held under those conditions. 

Sue and I met when we went to school in Gunnison, Colorado. The new name that they have picked out for the school is Western State Colorado University. It often has the lowest temperatures in the nation. While attending there was one year that it was minus 40 degrees for a couple of days. It was minus 30 degrees for a couple of weeks and below minus 20 degrees for about a month. Snow had to be shoveled to get our car out of is parking place at the trailer park. We had to close off part of the trailer because heat did not reach the back. Our first years of married life were spent in the 8x30 single wide trailer which we rented the space for 27.50 per month. Before Sue, my roommate had a Karman Gia sports car VW that had an air cooled engine. The only way it would start was if we plugged in a heat lamp that shown on the engine block an hour before we wanted to travel. The trailer court was 11 blocks from the campus. If we walked it in such extreme cold, we would layer our clothes on and stop at the drug store 5 blocks in and take off as many layers as we could inside the store. Once we recaptured the heat, we would walk the next 5 blocks to the first dorm on campus and do the same thing again. As heat recirculated in our system it was easy to walk around campus to get to our classes or the library. Prized study spots were on the upper floor of the Savage Library where the sun streamed in and students would bask in the glory of winter sunlight like cat that had found the secret to solar gain.

So in contrast our central valley weather shows significant moderation, We have nights that get down to 35 degrees and the days seem to warm up into the middle sixties.... not exactly Hawaii but not bad all things considered. We all wish for some rain.. but you have be careful about what you wish for....

: ) Pat