A S C R A P B O O K O F S O L U T I O N S F O R T H E P H O T O G R A P H E R
Enhancing the enjoyment of taking pictures with news that matters, features that entertain and images that delight. Published frequently.
7 July 2021
When we hear the weather report on the local TV news, we think we are getting a broadcast from some other state. We're high up in the middle of the city on the saddle between its tallest peaks. You'd think we'd get a mention.
But there's nothing to frighten us about. Not like the "inland areas" (where are we, at sea?) where boiling temperatures and overworked air conditioning will shortly spell the end of life as we know it (on land).
And certainly not in the more wooded areas to the north or south with their wild fires roaring over downed and ruptured utility lines. Armageddon again, inevitably.
It is hard to get worked up about the fog.
A friend of ours moved north last month, terrified of the heat and the wildfires that had evacuated the very area she was able to find a place to live in after it became too expensive for her to remain in the city. According to the local news forecast, she should be cinders by now.
It is hard to get worked up about the fog.
There's a statewide drought but every morning we wake up to find the streets wet and the plants dripping. The wild animals have not been driven into our bars and restaurants looking for water.
And the heat, well, it's so hot we're obliged to wear two sweatshirts, one under the other and insulated workout pants with a pair of woolen socks in down-filled slippers. There's a hot coffee to the right in case we start to have trouble moving.
The worst anyone can come up with about the fog is How Depressing It is. Although, that's quickly followed by But Some
People Like It.
As kids, we never really noticed it. Our mothers wouldn't let us out of the house without a sweater, which we found useful to make bases at the playground or end zone markers. They weren't much good when we played basketball because the lines were already painted on the concrete.
We still always take a sweater or coat with us, even when it's in the 90s, because you never know when you'll run across a pickup game.
Some things just get ingrained into you. And, as you know from reading the silly things we write, we are often, by nature, quite foggy.
But we're too harmless to ever make the news.