Ridin' out Winter in Monterey

The Old Sloat is in holiday hibernation. I'm riding out the rigors of a Monterey winter, passing my days reading, exercising, sleeping, playing the guitar, and watching football, basketball, hockey, CNN, and The Weather Channel on TV. Not an exciting existence, but tranquil. Really, it's not much of a hardship on the central California coast. Even now, during a cold snap, daytime temperatures reach the lower 50s, with sunshine more days than not. The previous two days we had cold rain here in Monterey, which translated to snow on Toro Peak, rising 3500 feet above Monterey Bay. I reckon the peak gets snow on it about 2-3 times in an average winter. Yesterday there was much more snow on the mountain, extending almost halfway down, so the snow level during the rain was about 2000 feet. This snow level is achieved almost every year, but it is extremely rare for widespread sticking snow to occur at sea level here; the last time was in 1962 during the AT&T golf tournament, then called the Bing Crosby Pro-Am. A round of the tournament was snowed out! Today we had our coldest morning so far this winter; 33 degrees, with patchy frost. Such cold is not rare; in an average winter at my place the coldest temperature is probably 30-32.

About 20 years ago, I visited Lovers Point in Monterey when I was living in Denver. I may have taken a picture of this squirrel's great-grandparent! (how long do squirrels live anyway?) At any rate squirrels have lived among these rocks for a long time. They bludge goodies from the tourons.

The seasons here are a bit indistinct, and the deciduous trees get confused. This buckeye tree is in full fall color on Dec 17. I have a picture, taken on New Years Day 1998, of buckeyes in their autumnal splendor right next to cherry trees in maximum spring bloom! They were a bit early that year, but even in a normal winter the cherry trees bloom fully by late January.