It got up to 66 degrees here today, though it didn't feel like it. There was a breeze all afternoon, which made it seem chilly. The days ahead are all predicted to be cooler, and the nights cold. It's already cold tonight, and the feral cats have taken refuge in their usual sheltered places.
The parts of the Internet that swallowed my time today included two long articles about Joan Didion, one from 1979 when she was probably at the peak of her popularity, and one from 2012. Didion is 83 now, and I suspect she won't be with us much longer.
I have never forgotten one of her images from an essay I read in the late 1960s, in which she described dry bougainvillea blossoms blowing along a residential street in Los Angeles one night when the Santa Ana winds were strong, with the blossoms making a sound like rattlesnakes. This was an appropriate time to be reminded of that image, with the wind blowing tonight, though there are no bougainvillea here, and the oak leaves that might substitute for them are still damp from the recent rain and won't skitter. The combination of the wind and Didion's evocative yet disturbing image are making me nostalgic for Los Angeles, though.
I should probably eat something. Can't seem to remember to do that anymore.