So This Is Summer?
Jul. 29th, 2013 05:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aearwen2I was out for a while today, and the fog cleared long enough to remind me what a nice, warm "California Sunshine" type day could be like.
Of course, as always, the warm didn't last long – already the "marine layer" (as it's known in these parts) has turned blue sky into whitish-grey and the on-shore breeze is chilly. Still, I don't mind it that much; if we didn't have the fog, we'd be cooking (or chilling our heels next to our air conditioners.)
This is typical Central California Coast Summer Weather. Night-morning fog that burns off somewhere around 10 or 11AM, and then the skies are clear until maybe 3 or 4PM when the marine layer moves in again. Low humidity in the air otherwise, we don't get much dew in the mornings.
Summer is not my favorite season. For one thing, I live in a resort area of California - which means that the entire place is inundated with tourists. I really do need that bumper sticker that says, "If it's tourist season, why can't we shoot them?" Tourists are dumb, usually half-lost, driving MASSIVE campers and dragging their SUVs behind down the city streets looking for a place to park. Gas stations boost their prices to take advantage (IOW gouge) them of their vacation funds.
Freeways are bumper to bumper - especially where one can actually see the water. Our little stretch of US101 is the only glimpse of the Pacific one gets after leaving San Francisco to go south until Goleta (about 25 miles north of Santa Barbara.) You can tell the tourists on the freeway by watching to see if they slow down when they crest the rise and see the water between there and Point Sal laid out in front of them like in the picture books.
Summer is also a time when I get very busy. I think I've blogged in here before about the musical performance that I'm involved in that will take place on the 10th of August. This is the third or fourth year that my summer has been so completely taken over by musical endeavors. Two two-hour rehearsals per week, and one vocalist comes over to the house for two half-hour practices as well. During June, my job is to find, transpose and disburse the pieces. July is practice, practice, practice - especially for me, who will be accompanying all but one of the singers as well as performing two pieces of my own.
Well, this past week, I threw a mild hissy fit and announced I wasn't going to do the pieces that had been chosen for me. One was Carousel Waltz, which was so dissonant to me that I was having real trouble with it; and the other was the overture to The Mikado. Both were simply Too Damned Long to begin with - one 11 pages, the other 18 - on top of everything else. Soooooooo... I found a piece of Sullivan written before he and Mr. Gilbert linked up, and I have a copy of "It's A Grand Night For Singing". I think I'll be able to pull my weight while not having to stress out about it quite so much. Still need to brush up the accompaniment to "Camelot", but I have most of the rest of the 21 pieces fairly well under my belt.
Also, have to meet with my piano/organ duet co-conspirator to prepare for playing for one (maybe two) services at the beginning of August as well. That's not counting the other two mornings I'm on tap to play for this Convention week.
So yeah. I'm in the middle of "crunch time" for that. I'll be glad when it's over, frankly, because I'm finally really brewing on an interesting O-fic story. I put in the time and did my world-building homework, and now I get flashes of inspiration that just make my new world so much more real to me. Yes, the sky there is green (metaphorically, if nothing else) but I'm starting to feel comfortable on a moon of planet far, far away.
Anyhoo, if nobody hears from me for a while, either I'm writing my hands off, or practicing the piano yet again. Eh. It keeps me out of the bingo parlors, right?
Of course, as always, the warm didn't last long – already the "marine layer" (as it's known in these parts) has turned blue sky into whitish-grey and the on-shore breeze is chilly. Still, I don't mind it that much; if we didn't have the fog, we'd be cooking (or chilling our heels next to our air conditioners.)
This is typical Central California Coast Summer Weather. Night-morning fog that burns off somewhere around 10 or 11AM, and then the skies are clear until maybe 3 or 4PM when the marine layer moves in again. Low humidity in the air otherwise, we don't get much dew in the mornings.
Summer is not my favorite season. For one thing, I live in a resort area of California - which means that the entire place is inundated with tourists. I really do need that bumper sticker that says, "If it's tourist season, why can't we shoot them?" Tourists are dumb, usually half-lost, driving MASSIVE campers and dragging their SUVs behind down the city streets looking for a place to park. Gas stations boost their prices to take advantage (IOW gouge) them of their vacation funds.
Freeways are bumper to bumper - especially where one can actually see the water. Our little stretch of US101 is the only glimpse of the Pacific one gets after leaving San Francisco to go south until Goleta (about 25 miles north of Santa Barbara.) You can tell the tourists on the freeway by watching to see if they slow down when they crest the rise and see the water between there and Point Sal laid out in front of them like in the picture books.
Summer is also a time when I get very busy. I think I've blogged in here before about the musical performance that I'm involved in that will take place on the 10th of August. This is the third or fourth year that my summer has been so completely taken over by musical endeavors. Two two-hour rehearsals per week, and one vocalist comes over to the house for two half-hour practices as well. During June, my job is to find, transpose and disburse the pieces. July is practice, practice, practice - especially for me, who will be accompanying all but one of the singers as well as performing two pieces of my own.
Well, this past week, I threw a mild hissy fit and announced I wasn't going to do the pieces that had been chosen for me. One was Carousel Waltz, which was so dissonant to me that I was having real trouble with it; and the other was the overture to The Mikado. Both were simply Too Damned Long to begin with - one 11 pages, the other 18 - on top of everything else. Soooooooo... I found a piece of Sullivan written before he and Mr. Gilbert linked up, and I have a copy of "It's A Grand Night For Singing". I think I'll be able to pull my weight while not having to stress out about it quite so much. Still need to brush up the accompaniment to "Camelot", but I have most of the rest of the 21 pieces fairly well under my belt.
Also, have to meet with my piano/organ duet co-conspirator to prepare for playing for one (maybe two) services at the beginning of August as well. That's not counting the other two mornings I'm on tap to play for this Convention week.
So yeah. I'm in the middle of "crunch time" for that. I'll be glad when it's over, frankly, because I'm finally really brewing on an interesting O-fic story. I put in the time and did my world-building homework, and now I get flashes of inspiration that just make my new world so much more real to me. Yes, the sky there is green (metaphorically, if nothing else) but I'm starting to feel comfortable on a moon of planet far, far away.
Anyhoo, if nobody hears from me for a while, either I'm writing my hands off, or practicing the piano yet again. Eh. It keeps me out of the bingo parlors, right?
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Date: 2013-07-30 10:35 am (UTC)- Erulisse (one L)
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Date: 2013-07-30 04:55 pm (UTC)Looking forward to the yakking tomorrow. Have a good day between now and then.
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Date: 2013-07-30 11:39 am (UTC)... And yes, yes you should be allowed to shoot them LOL
Bingo ftw, my Mam loved it. Hope I do hear from you once in a while and hope the busy helps you feel happier chuck.
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Date: 2013-07-30 04:59 pm (UTC)So many snow birds, so little freezer space.
Around the house of Aeärwen, we simply refer to tourists as cucarachas - in full recognition that we become them when we go off galavanting. Hubby has several tales about the idiocy of tourists from when we first moved to this area.
I'll be happy on the morning of the 11th of August, with the performance behind me. Right now, I'm in survival mode.