Could it be that those engaged in such fashion behavior are simply responding the weather and all its recent ups and downs? Can I blame them when one moment we can be walking the lake in shorts and tank tops and the next moment we're poking each other in the head with the ends of our umbrellas? Ouch! 

 

You've heard the talk and maybe said it yourself, 'This weather is weird!' Maybe you're referring to the high 70 degree weekend we had a few weeks back, or the fact that the only rain we've had this winter was in the last few weeks, or the fact that all the flowers were blooming, and now dying since they realized its still winter. Poor flowers. 

 

The truth is, the weather is not just randomly weird but the result of decades of pumping pollution into the sky. We are just now beginning to see the effects of this pollution not just in the photos of ice caps melting and polar bears downing, but in the weather we experience everyday. If we continue to pollute the same amount we do now, the Bay Area will have the weather of LA duing my life time. That means way hotter, way less water and way more fires. In addition, there is about a 100 year lag time between how much we pollute and how big the impact is. That means, we are only now experiencing the impact of pollution we created 100 years ago. So, 100 years from now, our kids kids will be experiencing the impact of the pollution we are causing today. 

 

What will that look like? What does that means for us? Could it be that our seasons are disappearing and being replaced by LA's climate and it's only going to get worse? This makes me sad. 

 

As a kid growing up in the Bay, I loved every season. I went swimming at the community pool in the summer, crunched leaves under my little feet in the fall, drank hot chocolate and watched the rain fall in sheets in the winter and couldn't wait to ride my bike in the spring. 

 

It wasn't until I got older and met people from the east coast that I heard, 'You don't have seasons in the Bay.' 

 

Having never been to the east coast or other parts of the US, I didn't know what they were talking about. For example, as a kid when I would tell my mom I was cold, she, being from Minnesota, would respond, 'you don't know the meaning of cold,' and then hand me a sweater. 

 

Never the less, I defended the Bay Area's beautiful seasons from east coast attacks with pride. Now however, given the weather we've been having, sometimes I'm not even sure what season it is. 

 

I want to live in a place where my hypotetical children can swim in a pool becasue it will be hot in the summer, crunch leaves under their little feet in the fall because the leaves will have turned bright red and fallen to the ground, sip hot coco in the winter because the rain will be falling outside and ride their bike in the spring because it will be bright and brisk with flowers in bloom.