How you can tell it’s fall in L.A., according to a guy from Vermont?
When I came out here as a teenager, it was August, and the first few days in a Fall season feels like it should be the best thing in the world. But then, it’s like when you’re in a foreign country, and suddenly all the lights go off. It’s just night and darkness, but it’s not quite night yet, and you know that when it’s really dark, there are shadows.
Fall is great – but it’s also a trick. It feels so warm and sunny that you forget to get out of the car, but it’s still December, when we should be in the rain and mud.
Like I said, I came out here for college and now I live here. It’s weird, not having a hometown, I guess. But anyway, one of the best things about being out here is that even during the rainy season, it doesn’t rain all the time. Some days, it’s sunny and warm – perfect weather for outdoor activities and walking or cycling. On those days, it feels like every other car in Santa Monica has the right shade of khaki.
I’ve seen that fall is almost a year early, though, because the Santa Monica Mountains are in a stage of growth now. My friend Bill, who lives in Vermont, told me the other day that he’s been able to tell it’s fall by the trees, which should be turning at any moment. But for those who don’t know to look for the start of the season, the start of fall is when the leaves start falling, which should happen around mid-September. By that time, the temperature goes around 60, and we start to see it all over again in Santa Monica – the yellow leaves on the trees, the burnt oranges on the leaves of the bushes – and everything is looking better.
It might seem like it’s going to rain all the time any longer, but I think that the real magic is over now, because even with the rain the leaves still fall. You can tell it’s fall because it doesn’t feel like fall any more – the day feels like it’s going to last forever.
On my first few days in August, I took a walk through