Yet another strange editorial from the New York Times...

link

In Northern California, the steady rain makes no difference to the sea lions and surfers. It seems to make no difference to the cattle grazing the coastal pastures that overlook the surf. The oldest barns along the coast highway an hour north of San Francisco show a pale green, like a wash of seawater over the barn wood. The sheep along the fence lines look almost as if they were fleeced with the Spanish moss hanging from oaks along the highway. The light is as variable as the rain and the salt breeze. Moisture catches in the manzanita and sage. Pastures stream with water, and creeks rumble down the cliff face, making for the sea across open beach.

So much water seems natural enough on the northern coast. Terrestrial life is half-aquatic there. But it's been the same in Southern California, and not just on the coast.

Actually, it's stranger than that: in the Pacifc Northwest we've enjoyed unprecedentedly mild weather, with temperatures in the high 50's - low 60's, and not a cloud in the sky.

It's as if SoCal and Portland OR have flipped the moisture aspects of climates.

We are starting to think of the possiblity of a drought here...

But folks, hey, don't move here, OK? Now that I've been here 7 years after arriving from NY, with its cold winters....

Ah, whatever. I think I'll go out and enjoy the somehwat early plum and cherry blossoms....