Wide Awake at 2:30

 It cold in SoCal, in the 40’s, when the sun goes down it gets cold fast. I feel the cold more because of the damned warfarin I take every day, blood thinner makes you feel cold. Cold enough to build a fire in the wood stove then warm enough to fall asleep on the sofa a little past ten and wake up at 2 in the morning.

A few minutes ago I read about the big winter storm in the midwest and the northeast. In quick succession I thought about the night in Cambridge when the January wind was blowing so damn hard the hanging traffic signal over Memorial Drive was sticking straight out, the storm when I was a kid when the intersection of highway 2 and 81 was so deep in snow the traffic signal was laying on its side, the buried traffic signal in the Back Bay, it’s lights showing “Walk-Don’t Walk” through the snow bank. Not that anyone in Boston pays attention to traffic signals, buried in snow or not.

When I tell my SoCal friends about winter storms their eyes bug out and jaws go slack, just like mine do when they tell me about the Northridge Earthquake. We’ve all bumped up against some shit a time or two.

Coldest I’ve ever been was a night on a sailboat crossing from Florida to the Bahamas in a Northeast gale, 20-25 foot seas and winds gusting to 55 knots, I don’t know what the air temperature was during the crossing, but I had on fleece longies, a heavy fleece jacket and full foul weather gear and I was still freezing my ass of while driving the boat, it was a long night. It was 33 degrees in West End, coldest it had been in the Bahamas in almost 100 years. You haven't lived until you're served a drink at an out door bar in Freeport by a bartender in a red ski jacket and gloves.Two days later it was in the high 70’s and not a breath of wind. We motored back to Florida.

I went out with the dog a few minutes ago, we both peed up against a tree, usually he likes to sniff around, not tonight. Anze trotted right back to the door while I zipped up. It’s windy outside, maybe 10-15kts, the oaks are moving around pretty good.

I’m going to Topanga in the morning and get a load of stove wood, then I’m going to clear out the washes, move some pots around for Cakes. Moving pots sounds easy, not these, the pots are huge, cast concrete bastards. They were cast years ago for the grounds of the Beverley Hills Hotel and somehow they ended up in our yard. I also need to get a pin for the latch on the front gate and I just noticed we’re out of orange juice.

To hell with this, I’m going to grab my Kindle and try to finish Paul Beatty’s “The Sellout” hopefully I’ll fall back asleep…