Here in sunny California the festival season is officially over. Not because summer is officially over (which it is), but because an early season rain storm blew in and shut down the fun at festivals throughout the Bay Area. For those who don’t realize how good we have it here, California is blessed with a Mediterranean climate, so rain is concentrated in late fall, winter and early spring, leaving summers predictably and pleasantly dry.
That makes it easy for event planners, from weddings to baseball games to street fairs. Plan something between June 1 and October 1 and you’re 99% safe weather-wise. Except this past weekend, where heavy rain sent people scurrying at outdoor events from San Francisco’s Tour de Fat to Lafayette’s Art & Wine Festival. But I think the hardest hit was San Jose’s Luna Park Chalk Art Festival. Chalk art and rain is a disaster.
Being optimists, we ignored the weather report which said 75% chance of rain between noon and 1pm. Most storms in the South Bay are pretty light, especially in the off-season. But there we were, riding in heavy rain to an outdoor chalk art festival. Whose dumb idea was it anyway? That’s right, mine. I owe Dick big time.
As expected, most of the chalk art was smeared into a watercolored mess by the time we arrived. As cold and wet as we were, we felt worse for the disappointed artists who could do little to save their art.
The sun is back out today and it’s warmed up a bit, but there’s no mistaking that fall is on its way. Time to hunt down my raincoat and boots, and my heavy coat too. The carefree days of warm-weather riding are numbered.
What signs of the end of summer do you see? What will you miss? What do you look forward to for fall?
