No California Dreaming Here

I’m not sure why this song stuck with me over the years, but whenever the weather begins to turn, I find California Dreaming rattling around in my head. I suppose I once enjoyed the tune, but it’s been rattling around so long in there, it has become something like a force of nature to me. It’s there, and it’s constant, but I can’t really say I like it or dislike it anymore. It’s just there. The funny thing is that I couldn’t disagree more with the basic theme of that song. The singer is essentially grieving over the coming of winter, and wishing he was in California, so to avoid it. Me, I love the winter, and I love the Autumn even more.
I’m not the only one (see: BookLust: Fall in Love, Yet Again…). There is just something about the turn of hot, oppressive summer into cool and blustery fall. I even like the grey and rainy days. I feel like a different person – like all the things that were a great burden have suddenly grown light, and huge load has been lifted from my spirit.
Perhaps it has something to do with my metabolism. I remember mentioning to a fellow once that I liked the cold, and he answered back, “No one likes the cold! You just like feeling comfortable when the rest of us are freeezing.” He had a point – it’s miserable to be cold. But that’s just it, I don’t get cold very easily. Thirty degree temperatures are shirt-sleeve weather to me. When it drops in the twenties, I’ll put on a light jacket, and only break out my heavy coat when it gets into the single digits. As the cold weather progresses, I get more and more acclimated. In the summer, it’s just the opposite. I get a little accustomed to the heat, but I am never truuly comfortable, and I sweat like a pig. My best guess is that my body converts it’s fuel into heat more than other people’s do. It sure doesn’t convert it to energy, I could use more of that. But staying warm is rarely my problem, at least if I’m awake.
It’s beginnning to look and feel like Autumn in these parts, and I, for one, am happy for it. I feel alive again, after a long hot summer.