I’m in big trouble. Real trouble.
My brain is again feeling free. For the first time in four years. Not perfect, just free. I tend to change my life dramatically every five years or so, and I can feel another change coming on. This is both a good thing and something that worries me to the core of my being. I find myself daydreaming crazy thoughts. Ideas, goals, voyages. I think about change, about making an impact and about being a catalyst. I also see the reality of the world.
What you see here is my coping mechanism. Up at 5:30. In the dark with my neighbors. Front and rear lights blinking as we make the lap of the marsh land. Hiking too. Short, under ten miles. Thinking. Plotting. Planning. Bouncing in and out of total and utter mental tranquility(fleeting) and thoughts of “Oh man I need one of THESE!” The only reason I like being in SoCal is that I can string together day after day of day of physical routine. When I’m on the road, or in New Mexico I can’t do it quite the same way.
Today will be 101 degrees here in Orange County, which is nearly thirty degrees above normal. We get these days when the Santa Ana Winds blow, which means the predominant wind is coming from inland instead of the ocean. All I can say is this is one of the grossest times you can imagine. The air at 5AM is HOT, and so smoggy it smells like a fire without a fire actually burning. EVERYTHING smells like exhaust because all of the putrid air of the LA basin blows out over the ocean. On days like today you will see smog over Catalina Island. Tourists standing on the boardwalk will utter “Oh my God,” when they look out over the expanse of the Pacific. A brown layer of coffee that we breath just by living here. They say that if your child is born in LA county your child is born with a compromised immune system just by breathing the air. This marks the beginning of the respiratory infection season here in SoCal. Most LA dwellers try to ignore these things but if you are someone who exercises it is impossible to deny. So all the windows and doors are closed, the fans are on and I focus on work to wait it out. Two days from the now the high will be in the 70’s and you might be able to see the mountains once again.
