On The Road
by: Bill Oetinger 12/1/2023
It’s Green Again!
If you read these columns with any regularity, you will have read this one before. Or not exactly this one, but the same theme: the changing of the seasons.
It’s nearing the end of November as I write this and I have had a little worry nagging at the back of my mind for a few days: I did not yet have a topic for my December column. However, there is nothing like a bike ride to open my mind to new topics…or, in this case, to an old topic that seems new again (as it does every year). I set off on a ride this morning and, within a few miles of home, I was smacked upside the head by this observation: “It’s green again!”
If you live in a region where rainfall is more-or-less constant, all around the calendar, this may not make much sense or at least not be cause for comment. But in our California world, it stops raining in April or May and doesn’t start again until the end of October. The green grasses carpeting the meadows in the winter and spring dry up and go to sleep. Their hollow husks turn golden and stay that way through the summer and fall.
As long as we’re not suffering through one of our occasional droughts, we can just about set our watches by the return of the rain and the re-greening of the meadows that follows along behind that fresh infusion of moisture. Right around Hallowe’en, we get our first real rain. It arrives right on schedule every year, like a train pulling into the station. Then, over the month of November, our mostly balmy Indian Summer days will now and then be interrupted by a day or two of rain…then more sun…then a little more rain. I think, this year, we have had four days of rain so far. Perhaps trace amounts on other days, but only four where we could look out the window at a seriously wet world. Wait…it just started raining again, as I’m writing this. So make that five days so far.
Just five days. But that’s enough. Even after the lightest little spritz of drizzle at the end of October, we could already see a soft green fuzz pushing up through last season’s tired old grasses. It takes a while for the new green to push the old dead foliage aside, but by Thanksgiving, the change is a done deal…and a pretty dramatic change it is. Anyone who says we don’t do dramatic seasonal changes in California is simply not paying attention.
I went out yesterday with an old friend for an easy cruise around the wine country. Then today I headed up into the West County hills…the Killer B’s: Bloomfield, Burnside, Barnett Valley. I was following the route of a classic club ride we list near Valentine’s Day every year: The Sweetheart Ride. In February, it’s something of a Rite of Spring for the more ambitious club riders. Some stout climbing and a good deal of rollicking descending, always with a fair bit of lunatic hammering. Now, solo, in November, it was a more sedate excursion. No half-wheel hell on the climbs and only a moderate amount of madness on the descents. I even stopped to take the photo that accompanies this piece…just to prove my point: it really is—all of a sudden—green again. Woo hoo!
No local cyclist ever complains about all the weeks and months of no-rain from May through October. We love it. But the hills and meadows do look rather bedraggled when the dry, spent grasses are drooping and broken far and wide. If you happen to be a “serious,” hardcore rider, one with big plans for the new year, you might feel a bit ambivalent about the return of the rain. You might chafe at losing some of your riding days. But deep down, at some atavistic level, I have to believe most of us feel some sort of glow of goodness and rightness when those meadows turn green again. Climate change notwithstanding, the seasons around here are still doing what they’re supposed to do, at least most of the time.
Heading up into the holiday season—the “dark” side of the year—I want to wish all of you the best seasonal cheer, whether you honor the little guy in the manger or are more attuned to some pagan celebration of the Winter Solstice. It’s all good. And most especially, here’s wishing all of us a safe and sane 2024. It could be a rocky rollercoaster of a year…a world of weirdness afoot. I hope things stay calm and commonsensical for you and your family and friends.
Bill can be reached at srccride@sonic.net