In Between Days...

This morning I scraped frost off the windshield. This afternoon, Ethan and I are going to the beach. I left the house this morning in a fleece, scarf and mittens. I'll return at the end of the day in a sandy t-shirt. Such is winter in California. Lovely in its own way, but so different from what I experienced for the majority of my life that I'm still trying to adjust to the inbetweenness of it all.

This is the time of year when I miss the piles of snow from the Januarys of my childhood---like the bank of it that used to sit to the left of our front door, under a steep slope in our roof; the snow would slide off the roof in a low rumbling that was like our own personal 4.5 on the richter scale, and leave a pile of snow that was still working on melting well into the month of April. I mean, if I'm going to have to head outside early to warm up my car in 36 degree temperatures and scrape the windshield, I should get some pretty, fluffy, sparkling in the sunlight snow to go along with it, right?

But then I think of what that snow is like in February (or March); grey and dingy from the car exhaust driving by, the blinding glare of melting snow on the roadways, and the cold that just never seems to go away, the summer that seems to be receding into the distance instead of getting closer. Yesterday, with the thermometer reading 68 degrees at 4:30 in the afternoon and the sun still high enough in the sky to spend some time outside playing, I felt a million miles away from the cold winters of New England and DC.

I still hope that it snows here (well, in Tahoe) so we can spend at least a weekend flopping down into powdery snow, making snow angels and sliding down hills, either in sleds or on skis. A few days ago, Ethan spent a good 30 minutes recounting specific details of his experience in ski school last year in Tahoe (the whole 1 day of it). I love that he loves the snow. I want to foster that, but its hard in a place where you have to drive five hours to get to a flake of snow.

But still. It's not a bad trade off when you can go play on the beach without a coat on one day before New Year's Eve...

fish eye of Natural Bridges in Santa Cruz

hanging out at the pier with friends; these boys are my life savers--they are a few years older than Ethan and know ALL about Star Wars AND Legos...

One wonders what surfer dude does with his board when he's riding his bike to the beach...

digging in the sand

Bombs away! Yes, that is a cannonball into a dry pit of sand. Boys.

Playing catch? With my kid. Awesome.

He holds his own with the big kids just fine, thank you very much!