Thin Ice

At the start of a new week we have a brief blip up in temperatures. The predicted dusting of snow arrived Sunday afternoon, turned to rain, then froze hard overnight. The road was ice covered and crusty this morning, but the wind chill was a modest 24F, rather than the 3F Sunday morning. As soon as the sun rose, the air warmed, and by midday was a balmy 40F.

The low early winter sun does not reach the cold side of rocks,

where rivulets of water remained frozen as a popsicle.

An acorn is trapped in a thin veneer of ice,
ready to break free with the first thaw.

The rock tripe of December 3rd,
then the feel of dried leather,
today moistened by the light rain and warmed by the sun,
now the feel of latex gloves.

I wonder why people live in San Diego. I have heard that the weather is warm and sunny every day of the year. Oh I suppose that sounds nice when the weather for Wednesday night, under a new moon, calls for 10 below zero wind chill. But if you were in San Diego you would not get to pull on long underwear, or smell the wood smoke curling from chimneys at dawn, or feel the changing nature of rock tripe, or see an acorn stuck fast in ice.