80 and Sunny

The Book

2009-09-01T10:29:00.001-07:00

It’s here! The 80 and Sunny book. Makes a perfect gift for friends, family, bosses, newlyweds – whatever and whoever likes sunshine.

Click HERE for a preview.

Why you should get a copy (or ten):

You support radical and neurotic projects about local weather.
It is unique and your consumer choices define your personality.
It is full of high-quality writing and photography from myself and several other Angelinos.
You can be in my next book titled, "People Who Support Me.”

September 5, 2008: Mercy Rule

2008-09-05T17:36:00.001-07:00

The gray clouds have been hovering over me for days now, a chilly reminder of the reality that I refuse to face: I'm in Michigan and not Southern California. The 80 and Sunny weather description challenge is suffering because I didn't let it go after a year like originally planned. What was once a die-hard display of writerly discipline is now just a testament to what a bad idea it is to hang on to something that has run its course.

So 80 and Sunny: 2007-2008 Edition is going to be archived here and on a special edition hard copy zine type thing that will be sent to all my guest writers and anyone that sends me an email complimenting my hair or my hard work.

I'm letting SoCal rest for the time being. I'll let Lynch do the LA weather reports. I'm starting fresh RIGHT NOW.

Labor Days Aug 30 - Sept 1 2008

2008-09-01T21:34:00.001-07:00

When it's hot in Michigan, hot over eighty degrees, it is as comfortable as trying on wet jeans. People like to pretend it's beautiful out. My mom says to me "you couldn't ask for anything more, it's a beautiful day."

I guess it's just my LA nature but I could think of five quick jumping-off points that would have made the day better starting with a temp reduction of ten degrees and ending with an extended sunset.

August 28, 008

2008-08-28T20:25:00.001-07:00

Soggy and seventy like the early entry wing of an old folks home. When the weather begins to remind you of the inside of the chuck taylors you've been wearing sans socks for eight years it really is time to evaluate your geographic placement.

August 27, 2008

2008-08-27T22:07:00.000-07:00

If today was a celebrity it would have been Don Most.

August 26, 2008

2008-08-26T20:00:00.001-07:00

Late summer sun in Michigan is like a candle centerpiece on a wooden picnic table. It's like a folk song. It's like the marriage of a snickerdoodle and oatmeal cookie. It's like a two-tone tan and cream El Dorado. It's like a bag of lays or a can of pringles or a bucket of popcorn or a bowl of pasta - whatever you can't get enough of.

August 25, 2008

2008-08-25T20:10:00.001-07:00

It's fifty degrees here in mid-Mich, meaning that I'd have to actually double down on degrees to equal just one day in the Southwest. I'm made about having to wear a cardigan before labor day but I shouldn't judge. They like to keep things moist here in the mitten and there's only one way to do that: lay off the burner for a while.

August 24, 2008

2008-08-24T21:37:00.001-07:00

Travis Bickle used to say that some day a great rain was going to come and wash away all the filth. Last night a great rain came in the mid Michigan country and washed away some pretty filthy heat.

August 23, 2008

2008-08-23T16:45:00.000-07:00

Think of a greasy spoon diner on a Saturday morning, you are sitting by a window and the sun is heating up the side of your face, there’s a ceiling fan kind of close to your seat but the coffee you can’t help but drink is making your forehead sweat. The waitress brings your short stack and you douse it in syrup, you pick up your fork to take a bite and feel the stickiness on the handle of your fork. You mis-poured and now your hand is full of syrup and your forehead is sweaty and you still want pancakes and a napkin won’t do a thing but tear away and live forever in the stickiness. That is what humidity is. Say Yes! To Michigan.

August 22, 2008

2008-08-22T19:13:00.000-07:00

The reverse hose-down: The more it rains here the hotter it gets.

August 20, 2008

2008-08-20T22:34:00.001-07:00

Oh I heard it seven times today. "It's so nice out, get outside if you can!" Grocery store clerks, radio announcers, priests, parents, football coaches - all of them aware of the beauty of this rare day. Low seventies with an autumn-preview sun. It is more of a crime to stay inside on one of Michigan's 100 yearly sunny days than it is to throw a pop can in the garbage.

August 15-18, 2008

2008-08-18T20:40:00.000-07:00

Here in the Great Lakes State you don't have to sweat in 80 degrees because the air does it for you.

Most people get really sweaty anyway.

August 14, 2008

2008-08-14T20:37:00.001-07:00

Locusts and lightening bugs! The entire day went by with nary a cloud passing. I dare say it was actually 80 and Sunny in Michigan. The difference in aesthetic being in the clouds and the second growth trees. I wish we all wore shoes made of dehumidifiers.

August 13, 2008

2008-08-13T14:38:00.001-07:00

Michigan weather is like a scoop of ice cream. It is never the same consistency twice and it makes you feel guilty if you don’t appreciate it. Wait, that is kind of like a mother. Michigan weather is like a mother. It is never the same consistency twice and will totally understand if you need your space. Wait, that is actually like a cat. Michigan weather is like a cat, it is never satisfied and only craps in the sand.

Ice cream, mothers, and cats: this weather report brought to you by the Chick Lit Association

August 8, 2008

2008-08-08T21:21:00.000-07:00

I've crossed three time zones and several climates. I have yet to decide what will become of 80 and Sunny. Maybe it will be a cute nickname for all the lightning bugs outside across the field out here in the Michigan country. Maybe it will be a dream mantra, a sun dance chant. All that I know is that constant sunshiny weather will probably be rare come fall around here. I will have to start a new blog, "Windchill Factor" if I stay north.

Tonight is a chilly sixty and damp, damp like your legs in shorts against a vinyl booth seat that a waitress just cleared off with a wet rag.

End of July

2008-07-25T16:11:00.000-07:00

Since 80 and Sunny accomplished the goal of creatively describing the weather everyday for a full year, I have been taking a break. A break to pack up my bags and find another weatherly place to report about. Check back soon for temp and atmosphere reports from the road.

For now, I am still in LA, and the weather is indeed, 80 and Sunny.

July 10, 2008

2008-07-10T23:45:00.001-07:00

365 days of creatively, and oftentimes dully, describing the weather.

The things I learned:

1) It is actually only 80 and Sunny around here about 60% of the time.
2) My 2007-2008 weather season was relatively grey but quite often sunny.
3) Sometimes the weather calls for a metaphor, sometimes a simile, but never a knock-knock joke.
4) Metaphor days are beautiful, simile days can be difficult.
5) Smog is its own weather.

July 9, 2008

2008-07-09T20:35:00.000-07:00

Oh the weather today. Some people call it overcast, some call it pollution, I call it little particles of industrial afterbirth. JG read in an article that Olympic marathon runners were training in baggy sweats and face masks to condition their bodies to the pollution in China. Our air quality today inspired me to send an open invitation to all Olympic athletes to come train in LA. It’s kind of like Bejing Light.

And a science note take-away for the eve of the 365th day of 80 and Sunny:The sky itself is not full of blue-tinted particles. Instead, light waves are deflected by air molecules, and repeated collisions scatter light in all directions.

July 8, 2008

2008-07-08T23:27:00.000-07:00

So many food references come up when thinking about weather metaphors: lemonade, chili cheese Fritos, bacon, eggs, pudding - they all could describe the sun and air. I try to be more creative. I want to tell you how beautiful today was without using foodstuff in a simile but I don't know if it will work out. Today was sunny and pleasant like a spray of a citrus perfume named after a beach walk.

July 7, 2008

2008-07-08T00:18:00.001-07:00

Shaking hands with the mid-eighties in a pottery kiln.

July 6, 2008

2008-07-06T23:52:00.000-07:00

We are all cut potatoes in a sunshine oil deep fryer: A crispy eighty three and sunny today.

July 5, 2008

2008-07-05T20:15:00.000-07:00

A real sizzler, without the buffet. No choices, just sun and a passing cloud if you really wanted it enough.

July 4, 2008

2008-07-04T22:50:00.000-07:00

Hot as the inside of a human body. It was a day for napping and a night for explosives. Happy 4th of July.

July 2 & 3, 2008

2008-07-03T19:46:00.001-07:00

In the summertime we can put Wednesday and Thursday together like a Saturday and Sunday. Both are days we don't want to work.

It's been hotter than reported as of late. The papers are saying eighty-somethings and our skin is feeling one hundred and ninety something. The factual journalistic truth and the sun are not agreeing and one of them is always right so keep wearing sunscreen.

July 1, 2008

2008-07-01T18:07:00.000-07:00

How does one describe a sunny day? In comparison to the day before or the dark night or the long months of hard winter that preceded it? Should we describe it as it is, in the moment, regardless of what came before and what will come after? I’ll describe todays bright eighty-two sunny degrees like this: hot mustard over cold honey.

June 30, 2008

2008-06-30T22:59:00.000-07:00

The brightness of the day can best be measured by how dangerous it is to be a pedestrian at dusk.

The longest day has past but we won't know the difference for a while. For now it seems like the sun is hanging out extra long. Not over-staying her welcome or anything, just letting us know it's high summertime.

June 29, 2008

2008-06-29T22:31:00.000-07:00

Soft side of serious heat today. My block is the injection site of the sun. Side effects include sweating, squinting, and browning around the edges.

June 28, 2008

2008-06-28T23:22:00.000-07:00

A day as perfect as yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

June 26 & 27, 2008

2008-06-27T13:48:00.001-07:00

80 and Sunny has been tripped up from it's daily message in the past week plus. It never helps to place blame but it's always easy to blame the weather. Days were lumped in with other days, descriptions have been reduced to "ditto" It's a shame. Hopefully just a brief dark period in this season of summer light. A summer solsctice minireverse hybernation and a heat wave protest rolled into one.

We are back and ready to once again describe a sunny day.

June 23-25, 2008

2008-06-25T21:35:00.000-07:00

I came back in with the cool breeze today. No traces of the hot weather my guest writers complained about, until I opened up the door to my place. It had been preheated to 101 degrees for the past ten days.

June 22, 2008

2008-06-22T20:32:00.001-07:00

Pretty pink roses are burning brown. Talkative people are mum. Nice people are mean and mean people are too hot to bother. Everyone is walking slowly. The grocery stores have sold out of ice. Whether or not it is really 118 degrees I cannot tell but I can tell you it might as well be 1018 degress because that's what it feels like.

-BT

June 20, 2008

2008-06-20T20:06:00.000-07:00

I have been enjoying the breezy, rain-sprinkled weather of Michigan so I could only assume the worst fate for my absent guest writers. The message I received from Bethany today confirmed:

Today has rendered me a human ice cream cone dripping sticky melting onto the sidewalk hot hot sidewalk. Sticky icky eewwy gooey hot.

Stay alive.

June 16 & 17, 2008

2008-06-17T23:07:00.000-07:00

Weather reports from the indoors and out and those walking to the movies:

From JG:
Without exaggeration, the only proper description for tonights weather in Los Angeles is perfect. The sun lit moon has showered the trees and rooftops with a beautiful night light. (Feel free to edit this sara....we are walking to the vista to see the hulk as I write this) -JG

editors note: perf as is

From Jamie M:

My house is stuffy. My house is stuffed with warm air. I'm being squashed by hot air. In my own home! It feels like something stole my home away from me and replaced it with a cube of torture. I am uncomfortable at my desk. I am uncomfortable in my bed. i am uncomfortable eating. I just want to shower in cold water and whine and fart and knife fight the person, place or thing that is responsible for this annoying, ominous HEAT HEAT HEAT. I don't know how many degrees it is outside because it doesn't matter because its 5 trillion degrees hotter in my hot cube home. the end. f$%* the heat. the end.

June 15, 2008

2008-06-15T22:06:00.000-07:00

Bethany T takes on the task of describing our Father's Day weather:

Today a bright and happy child holding sticks of color has drawn Los Angeles. Fluffy white is dotted all across the clear blue sky. A canary yellow crayon has drawn countless circles filling the day with warmth and light. People are drawn walking in the park smiling under the shade of blooming magnolia trees. Hang this picture on your fridge to remind yourself on the smoggy days how beautiful this city always wants to be.

June 13 & 14, 2008

2008-06-14T19:40:00.000-07:00

Gorgeous, sunshiny morning with hot sunshine later that made people collate all of their yard sale goods into tiny little patches of shade.

June 12, 2008

2008-06-12T23:40:00.000-07:00

Beautiful day. Today was like selling a shiny burgundy 1981 Mercedes to a couple on their way to a 55 year high school reunion in Colorado. So fitting, so well dressed, so happy. Reunited with a destiny that they had always hoped for.

June 11, 2008

2008-06-11T22:47:00.000-07:00

We are on a winning streak here people. Lets not overthink it, overexplain it, and just try to appreciate it for what it is. You are only as sunny as your last hour and today was yet another championship day filled with fourteen sunsmacking sections of sixty minutes.

June 10, 2008

2008-06-10T18:11:00.000-07:00

Eighty and clear today with a bit of rather arrogant cloud foreshadowing.

June 9, 2008

2008-06-10T01:35:00.000-07:00

Sunny. 80. A perfectly perfect day if you were able to ignore the "tomato notices" all over the city.

June 8, 2008

2008-06-08T22:45:00.000-07:00

Frizzante sky.

June 7, 2008

2008-06-07T19:37:00.000-07:00

Eighty and sunny. Perfectly.

June 6, 2008

2008-06-06T23:14:00.001-07:00

D-Day, a day to storm beaches and celebrate my little brother's birthday! Eighty and pleasant while sitting still, a bit too sunny for outdoor, unshaded physical activity. Perfectly fine for an evening baseball game.

June 5, 2008

2008-06-05T23:39:00.000-07:00

The temperature today was water and the sun was air like the sky was hot.

June 4, 2008

2008-06-04T22:05:00.000-07:00

An unwelcome visit from Ms. June Gloom. If we all bond together we can be as unaccommodating as possible and she can take off with her friend Mr. Sprinkles and head to the bay area where they belong.

June 3, 2008

2008-06-03T23:17:00.000-07:00

What a day for a daydream. Sunshiny and pleasant as a foot rub. Pleasant as a white wine spritzer, an episode of "Touched by an Angel," or even as pleasant as Saturn customer service in the 90s.

June 2, 2008

2008-06-02T22:05:00.000-07:00

In June, thousands of climate control engineers from all over the world gather in southern California to research what the ideal temperature would be for human happiness. You could see all those pocket-protector nerds roaming around the flower lined streets of Atwater Village sniffing around, holding their faces to the sunshine, wetting their fingers to monitor air direction. Their research is never done.

June 1, 2008

2008-06-01T22:58:00.001-07:00

Today I learned that it is always, without fail, seventy four and one half degrees fahrenheit in Pasadena. The city is under a special invisible temperature dome that is funded by the two dollar over night street parking permits. The steady temperature encourages kind attitudes and picnics.

May 30 & 31, 2008

2008-05-31T19:50:00.000-07:00

How do you put a perfect pair of days in words? Do you say seventy-five and sunny with a gentle cooling breeze? Do you mention that the breeze felt as if it was brought in from the tops of push-pops from children on carnival cruise boats? No, no you don't.

May 29, 2008

2008-05-29T22:09:00.000-07:00

Glory goodness what a day to pack a picnic. Mid-seventies and sunny all the way till Sunday. Finally.

May 28, 2008

2008-05-28T21:52:00.000-07:00

If days were people and weather was clothing then today would have been a malnourished short old man with a full head of wiry grey hair dressed in tight seersucker clamdiggers and floating in an XXL Celtics jersey.

May 27, 2008

2008-05-27T23:33:00.000-07:00

Can we all wear white now? The mild sunshine and impalpable temperature dipped this day into the pre-summerish side on the pleasantry meter.

May 26, 2008

2008-05-26T21:49:00.000-07:00

Five planes flew in formation
over us around noon.
Dark metal knights cutting through
the goldenrod and magnolia sky.
Creating a somber memorial
on this delicate golden day.

May 25, 2008

2008-05-25T23:14:00.000-07:00

Still. Cold. Gray. Still cold and gray.

May 24, 2008

2008-05-24T23:24:00.001-07:00

Los Angeles has not been a good host to springtime visitors looking for fun and sun. Instead it's become more of a napping zone, a pasta coma, and a sprinkleton. No place for Memorial Day weekend. It's time to bring in the set dressers and throw up the summertime.

May 23, 2008

2008-05-23T22:34:00.000-07:00

Flashback to fall and winter and rainy days. This can't be May. The Dodgers game is postponed in the bottom of the ninth with one out. We wait in anticipation of a run tonight and the sun tomorrow.

May 22, 2008

2008-05-22T22:41:00.001-07:00

The day started out sunny enough for a nieghborhood stroll. Dark clouds crashed the party by the late afternoon but were forgiven because they brought a guest we hadn't seen in years, maybe even decades around these parts: THUNDER.

May 21, 2008

2008-05-21T20:19:00.000-07:00

The wind is changing the shape of things around here. Daisies look like tulips, mohawks look like comb-overs, flags look possessed, and people crossing the street look like they are coming out of mime school. If things weren't business as usual, and if it wasn't mostly sunny and pleasantly seventy something degrees, we'd be staring in the alternate trailer for M. Night Shyamalan's new flick.

May 20, 2008

2008-05-20T16:58:00.001-07:00

Oh sweet easy breezy how we love the seventies. Perfect baseball weather, perfect high-fiving light, ideal touring sky, I'd even go so far as to say - indefectible marathon air.

May 19, 2008

2008-05-20T01:10:00.000-07:00

The heat hangover continues. Sweat forms any place where skin touches skin or fabric touches skin or skin touches metal or metal touches fabric or one thing touches another. We notice, with great annoyance, how much heat is generated by the things we use everyday; laptops, televisions, windows, staplers, papers, people looking sideways...

May 18, 2008

2008-05-19T00:54:00.000-07:00

About nine degrees less than a hundred degrees is still hot. The most dangerous place to be the day after a seriously hot day is indoors in, say, a residence where the occupants were unsuccessful in their heat management. While it was only in the mid eighties outside, several houses and apartments and party stores across LA were still trying to cool down after the oven door shut. It was like heat surrounding a pilot light. Like hot sweat particles lingering in a locker room. Like cholesterol in the air seven hours after the fryers have been turned off. Unless you ice it when you first get it, that burn -- the heat from the day is going to keep cooking long after the sun has done her business.

May 17, 2008

2008-05-17T17:05:00.000-07:00

After a late morning walk through the Silverlake hills, Bethany and I decided it is 107 degrees. The hostess at the Eagle Rock restaurant said a guy told her it was 103. Weather dot com says its only 95 in LA proper. You can’t get all of your weather information from the internet. It was, and still almost is, hot enough to cook brains.

May 16, 2008

2008-05-16T21:28:00.000-07:00

Nearly a hundo! Today looked and felt like the Carl's Jr Jalapeno Chicken sandwich -- the one in the commercials that looks all food stylist-stylized. They make sloppy look sexy. It's their thing. The sandwich features a thick layer of sliced jalapenos balanced over melted cheese. It's like the smog over the sun. Do you get it?

May 15, 2008

2008-05-15T14:28:00.000-07:00

It’s hot today like we all did something terribly wrong. Not the ultimate punishment (boiled skin, eternal damnation, hair on fire, chipped-paint on the hoods of our cars) but a warning of things to come if we don’t straighten up. I think they call this earthquake weather.

May 14, 2008

2008-05-14T22:39:00.000-07:00

Nearly 80 and certainly sunny. Shut up and shine you freak hot orange ball. We love it. You highlight the trees, the sidewalks, and the floating particles of our natural resources in their chipped-up cracked-off car-dusting death state.

May 13, 2008

2008-05-13T17:46:00.000-07:00

Mid seventies with a hopscotch sun and a kite friendly breeze today.

May 12, 2008

2008-05-12T21:58:00.000-07:00

What is there to post but we are getting June Gloom when we should be getting May Gray? I mean the world has gone topsy turvy. It's cold and fall like in the late spring. The reason Los Angeles is such a car town is because we sometimes, not often, but sometimes have to drive to the sunshine. It's an entirely huntable resource - you can just dig and drive and drive and dig until you find it. And you will find it, it may be fifty or a hundred and fifty miles east but it's there, hovering, radiating, baking, and bossing dirt around out there in the desert. That crazy sun can't sublet to the clouds forever.

May 10 & 11, 2008

2008-05-12T00:26:00.000-07:00

Sure as the sun shines in southern California, the Salton Sea still smells like fish.

May 9 & 10, 2008

2008-05-10T02:15:00.000-07:00

Hiatus due to visit from Detroit resident. Like the toxic winds of a firestorm, the visitor has brought with her several omens of strong(hesitant to say bad) luck; closure of the Vincent Thomas Bridge, cold gray days, and an embarrassing loss to the Astros.

May 7, 2008

2008-05-07T22:23:00.000-07:00

Chills to pay the bills. A real inside-the-park cloud-ridden cold-ass day. Come on people, we have visitors coming. This is th ekind of thing you'd come to expect from Santa Cruz, not the land of movie stars and swimming pools.

May 6, 2008

2008-05-06T23:23:00.000-07:00

The January weather reprise continued today like the third telling of the same joke.

May 5, 2008

2008-05-05T22:46:00.000-07:00

A completely unreasonable unseasonable day. Weather and wind and grayness that flip-flopped our flip-flops for boots and wool socks. Is this May or is this the end? If only today would have offered a receipt. The kind with the extra long prints out with the call-in survey instructions. At least then we'd all be entered in a drawing to win $5,000 or maybe a 10% temperature increase on our next visit.

Happy B-Day Karl Marx.

May 3 & 4, 2008

2008-05-04T21:50:00.000-07:00

Light sun and an easy exchange of breeze and bustle made us do a double take and ask Saturday and Sunday, 'Are you guys twins?"

May 2, 2008

2008-05-02T22:09:00.000-07:00

Listen up rest of the summer, today was perfect, high seventies, sunny, with a breeze completely absent of brush fire. This is how we are going to roll out from now on. Please follow in a single file line.

May 1, 2008

2008-05-01T22:18:00.000-07:00

May day! Flowers and ribbons and lilies of the valley and international workers parties.

April 30, 2008

2008-04-30T22:46:00.000-07:00

Fires from the north, the east, from everywhere. Fires are part of our summertime climate as much as the temperature, the sun rays, the wind, and the smell of honesuckle. And now a found words weather poem:

Color library forcasting
Polar disasters
The thin envelope of air
Where droughts often occur
Prevailing winds meet up
With the Earths rotation in
A kind of frost called rime
Cushioned to stop them
sinking into loose sand.

April 29, 2008

2008-04-29T23:02:00.000-07:00

A day with a difference of ten degrees than the last is truly special. Any more than that and it's just showing off. And showing off is a little too LA, doncha think?

April 28, 2008

2008-04-28T21:19:00.000-07:00

Today the outdoors is the enemy. The fires are back tossing toxic ash all over the foothills. Everything is ten degrees hotter than ninety. People with respiratory problems are advised to stay inside. By tomorrow that will be everybody.

April 27, 2008

2008-04-27T23:51:00.000-07:00

Hot on the rooftops, hot on the street, wear something light to cover your feet.

April 26, 2008

2008-04-26T19:59:00.000-07:00

We were all sweating in the shade but it was the kind of heat with meaning: warming a Saturday all our own to fill up with whatever we chose. Clear skies above and ten car lengths of room infront; a magical LA day.

April 25, 2008

2008-04-26T01:16:00.000-07:00

The 25th hour.
The 13th inning.
The low to mid eighties today and again tomorrow.

Sun it out.

April 24, 2008

2008-04-24T23:16:00.000-07:00

Sunshine like orange juice splashing slow motion into a glass.

April 23, 2008

2008-04-23T22:22:00.001-07:00

According to popular weather reports, temps are dipping a little lower than normal lately. According to this weather report, Los Angeles hasn't been anywhere near normal for decades. We'll take the high sixties, low seventies, and anything else you can stand up and walk on Hollywood Blvd.

April 22, 2008

2008-04-22T23:37:00.000-07:00

Earth Day is every day.

April 21, 2008

2008-04-21T19:35:00.001-07:00

A beautiful late spring day will treat you like a new pair of sneakers. The kind with air bubbles or pockets or coils in the heel. The air is fresh and the weight of your life has not yet compacted everything. It’s a sole full of possibilities.

April 20, 2008

2008-04-20T22:27:00.000-07:00

Parti su.

April 19, 2008

2008-04-19T17:42:00.001-07:00

Today I said to myself, talk about the weather without mentioning clothing, work, gardening, or the sun. The only thing left is magnolia blossoms. I see one out the window and it's shiny, symmetrical, and signalling everyone to get outside.

April 18, 2008

2008-04-18T21:48:00.000-07:00

Sunny with end of the work week heat. Parasol needed if you were at a flea market or performing crossing guard duties. Underarm deodorant needed if you were working at all. Hopefully not aerosol because there was enough smog today, thanks.

April 17, 2008

2008-04-17T15:35:00.000-07:00

If you looked "perfect day" up in the dictionary it would say something like:

Stop using "if you looked blankity blank up in the dictionary..." to do your describing work. If you mean to say that such item, event, or emotion is a perfect specimen for defining such item, event, or emotion than just show us."

Seriously though today was perfect. Perfect for all outdoor sporting activities that require sun and warmth. Perfect for skipping out on work or sitting near a window if you couldn't skip out. Perfect for a picnic. Perfect for driving. Perfect for not doing laundry or hanging it outside if you did. Perfect for seeing how much dirt is on your car. And perfect for killing ants with a magnifying glass.

April 16, 2008

2008-04-16T20:27:00.000-07:00

What do you think? You can just smog out the tourists? We have to live here too, us city lovers with our sinuses, our leathery pollutant-ridden sinuses. Soon your clouds will have to be full of mucinex and the blue in your sky, water from a neti-pot.

April 15, 2008

2008-04-15T23:03:00.000-07:00

Hot and cold and partially and fully sunny therapy all day long.

April 14, 2008

2008-04-14T23:00:00.000-07:00

Less hot today. That is what the weather report said when I checked this morning. "Less hot today," it said in this way that assumes we all know what the heck we are supposed to be comparing it too. It's a not really a new way of describing things this abstract comparison and indeed today was less hot, but it was really more hot than we'd like it.

April 13, 2008

2008-04-13T21:40:00.000-07:00

Blazed out all day. Whitewashed bare blasted overexposed sunshine forced us all to run around from one air conditioned place to another like we were dodging for cover in a giant lazer tag game.

April 12, 2008

2008-04-12T23:04:00.000-07:00

Sizzlin Saturday. The sweat factor was 70% t-shirt soakage.

Today in the LA Times there was an article about an atom smasher being built in Geneva. They are nearly certain that it probably won't create a black hole that will suck in the earth and end life as we know it. The onset of summer sun is like a black hole that will leave the rest of the earth alone. The city has begun to turn itself inside-out. It is only a matter of time before the hot smell of repetitive sun-baking on manmade surfaces and the cracked dashes and sunburns and black-outs begin.

April 11, 2008

2008-04-11T23:54:00.001-07:00

The only thing that could have made the weather more perfect for baseball would have been the subtle miracle breeze of a walk off grand slam. It did not happen tonight but the stage has been set. It's the season for sunshine and slammin.

April 10, 2008

2008-04-10T15:45:00.000-07:00

This is what a perfect day feels like and if it weren’t for the smog mucking up my view of the mountains, it would be what a perfect day looks like as well. If you just concentrate on your immediate area, and observe the effects of the distinct illuminative qualities of the southern California sun on your surroundings, you’ll get an idea of how things should be. 75 and sunny.

April 9, 2008

2008-04-09T20:20:00.000-07:00

If you were a flower you would have looked your best today.

If you were a cloud you would have looked your worst. Because, well, or maybe you would have looked your most invisible.

April 8, 2008

2008-04-08T22:00:00.000-07:00

Low seventies. It was smoky in the morning, smoky looking due to cloud coverage, but by mid day it was smoky as in tightly gathered particles of burnt organic and inorganic materials off the 210. Who says a collision can't muss up the weather?

April 7, 2008

2008-04-07T23:32:00.000-07:00

It's cold up in the shadows of the hills of La Canada. The 2 is the last highway of Los Angeles to have any room for anything, totally underused in my opinion. Just like sunshine on the dark side of a hill. What is this post?

April 6, 2008

2008-04-06T20:35:00.000-07:00

The slow spring sun took it's time to come out today, but it did eventually.

April 4 & 5, 2008

2008-04-05T10:06:00.000-07:00

We are lumping the grey days together like good modern people trained to take a little bad and mix it with worse and call it a loss.

Really though, Friday had bouts of believability. It helped if you were able to catch the intermittent sun passing over expansive fields of California poppies. The fire flower really knows how to shine and make the most of lil bits of light.