Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Old Man Kinda-Winter, Go Away Already

I must admit, moving from Iowa to San Diego was a bit of a culture shock, even though Iowa was simply a 7 year stepping-stone to my impending arrival here. Quick explanation, I lived in Maryland previously to being an Iowan. So even though I had a sense of culture and "city life" from being smack dab in the middle of Baltimore and D.C., it was as if living in Iowa erased all that. Nothing but corn and pigs in Iowa, as well as real winters.

My two year anniversary that celebrates my San Diego residency is less than two months away so the past few months have been only the second "winter" I have spent here. While my body acclimated very quickly to SoCal weather, my mind still reels from the ever-growing sense of the fortune I have found from not having seen one single snowflake in almost two years. Even in February I find myself basking in sunshine and warmth compared to what Iowa and even Maryland have been subjected to lately.

I have even seen the effects on a more smaller scale here in South Park. To backtrack slightly, when I moved to San Diego I lived in a part of town called Talmadge, directly where Fairmount and El Cajon meet. After that I spent six months or so up in Poway. It wasn't until the middle of April of last year that I became a resident of this fantastic area called South Park. Yet even in less than a year I have seen the effects of typical San Diego winter weather in my neighborhood. If you don't know, I live less than a block from an oft rambunctious watering hole, Hamilton's, and directly above a rather posh restaurant called Alchemy. Last summer I lasted through the nightly bar crowd and their extremely loud, if not entertaining, antics. Yet once September and October rolled around, those evenings of eavesdropping on drunken bar-heads have dropped off significantly. Now it has been relegated to weekends and even then, I have to listen hard to hear them.

I've tried to figure out if it's the weather, even though I find it strange that a drop of barely 10 or 15 degrees would keep the thin-skinned home or in bed earlier than their summer escapades, or if it could be for any other reason, such as a lack of funds to spend on alcohol and stupidity. Either way, I've found myself rather disappointed and missing the "good ol' days" of inane drunken shenanigans, even though I recently caught a couple outside my apartment shaking their car with some old fashioned, young-at-heart relations. If the tinted-windowed PT Cruiser is a-rockin'.... At first I was kinda disgusted by it but when they were done and realized they left their lights on and had to jump the battery, it made it all worth it.

So please, Old Man Kinda-Winter, go away already. Your presence bores me and makes my South Park weeknights and most weekend evenings boring. I enjoy the fact that the leaves still remain on the trees but damn, you really do bring out the stodgy, staleness in people.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all

Previous article

Melissa Etheridge, The Imaginary Amazon

Events April 1-April 3, 2024
Next Article

Reader Music Issue short takes

Obervatory's mosh pit, frenetic Rafael Payare, Lemonhead chaos, bleedforthescene, Coronado Tasting Room

I must admit, moving from Iowa to San Diego was a bit of a culture shock, even though Iowa was simply a 7 year stepping-stone to my impending arrival here. Quick explanation, I lived in Maryland previously to being an Iowan. So even though I had a sense of culture and "city life" from being smack dab in the middle of Baltimore and D.C., it was as if living in Iowa erased all that. Nothing but corn and pigs in Iowa, as well as real winters.

My two year anniversary that celebrates my San Diego residency is less than two months away so the past few months have been only the second "winter" I have spent here. While my body acclimated very quickly to SoCal weather, my mind still reels from the ever-growing sense of the fortune I have found from not having seen one single snowflake in almost two years. Even in February I find myself basking in sunshine and warmth compared to what Iowa and even Maryland have been subjected to lately.

I have even seen the effects on a more smaller scale here in South Park. To backtrack slightly, when I moved to San Diego I lived in a part of town called Talmadge, directly where Fairmount and El Cajon meet. After that I spent six months or so up in Poway. It wasn't until the middle of April of last year that I became a resident of this fantastic area called South Park. Yet even in less than a year I have seen the effects of typical San Diego winter weather in my neighborhood. If you don't know, I live less than a block from an oft rambunctious watering hole, Hamilton's, and directly above a rather posh restaurant called Alchemy. Last summer I lasted through the nightly bar crowd and their extremely loud, if not entertaining, antics. Yet once September and October rolled around, those evenings of eavesdropping on drunken bar-heads have dropped off significantly. Now it has been relegated to weekends and even then, I have to listen hard to hear them.

I've tried to figure out if it's the weather, even though I find it strange that a drop of barely 10 or 15 degrees would keep the thin-skinned home or in bed earlier than their summer escapades, or if it could be for any other reason, such as a lack of funds to spend on alcohol and stupidity. Either way, I've found myself rather disappointed and missing the "good ol' days" of inane drunken shenanigans, even though I recently caught a couple outside my apartment shaking their car with some old fashioned, young-at-heart relations. If the tinted-windowed PT Cruiser is a-rockin'.... At first I was kinda disgusted by it but when they were done and realized they left their lights on and had to jump the battery, it made it all worth it.

So please, Old Man Kinda-Winter, go away already. Your presence bores me and makes my South Park weeknights and most weekend evenings boring. I enjoy the fact that the leaves still remain on the trees but damn, you really do bring out the stodgy, staleness in people.

Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.