The Fog Returns
I am sitting here on my hilltop and see that I am surrounded by fog. Fog is a funny substance. On the one hand, it should be a welcome addition for purposes of the garden, giving everything a coating of its fine mist is a persistent and soaking way. I don’t know how much moisture plants get out of fog, but it seems like it would be good for them in its slow and methodical moisturizing. But the fog also does something to lay a wet blanket over my feel-good that I usually get upon waking to a sunny morning. We all say that this sort of weather can make our joints ache and we all think it puts damper on our mood overall. And here’s the thing, I am very good at noticing the downer aspects of a lingering morning fog, to the point where I feel like just sitting here and not doing too much of anything that feels motivated. Its not just me, either. I am looking at Buddy, curled up in his bed with his little beady eyes closed. Usually at this time of day, he is up on the sofa with me with a ball in his mouth, wanting to play for as long as I am willing. Buddy is my canary in the coal mine on such things. If the fog is making him loggy, then this is more than just psychosomatic and there must be some physical reason for the feeling.
We all understand the negative impact that fog has on transportation services due to impaired visibility. The impact is on air, sea and land modes of transportation, all for the same reasons of reduced visibility are the most severe at the start of the travel day. We are supposed to be at our most productive first thing in the morning, presumably after a good night’s sleep. On a foggy morning, the universe seems to be saying to us that we need to slow our start and just go about everything a little more cautiously. That should be a good thing, but I’m less convinced that we respond in that way to a blanket of fog. Everything seems muted and unclear. Fog tends to exacerbate pulmonary issue by forcing the lungs to fill a bit less fully to avoid ingesting too much fluid. When we have bad congestion, we seem to want to create an artificial environment of moist air to somehow force our lungs to cough up residue. I’m not sure why that would create a positive environment in one instance and a negative one otherwise. But I feel a weight upon me this morning that can only be caused by the fog and it’s most noticeable oppressiveness upon me. Fog is like that old joke where you say that hitting yourself feels good because of the relief when you stop. Well, I am already thinking about how great the day is going to be once the fog lifts.
My little canary, Buddy, is starting to mobilize, which suggests to me that we are in the process of everything returning to normal this morning. The sky to the east is lightening and implying that the sun is about to break through the fog and start to shine. It is a slow and gradual process that does not happen like flipping a switch. I somehow feel like I should stay here and not mobilize until the fog actually lifts. All I really have on my agenda this morning is to go to the gym and have a swim to keep my joints and muscles limber. You would think that a moisture barrier like fog would not interfere with my going into the water, but it does because before I get there I have to drive my truck down the hill through the fog. The critters of the world seem to adjust to the atmospheric conditions like fog, so maybe we should as well. This morning Kim saw two big coyotes in the driveway. We rarely see them that up-close on this hillside though their spoor tells us that they are always around, just well hidden or at least camouflaged. I would like to think that they are out hunting rabbits, of which there are plenty, but for all I know, they sense Buddy’s presence and vulnerability. We know he is at risk in the wild on this hilltop and he has only limited interest in running around outdoors, so he must get it as well. He is a house dog and quite content to stay indoors so long as we are here with him as well. He really only goes out on the leash and even then only rarely wants to take a walk. He is so small that he gets ample exercise just running around the house playing all day.
Up here on the hilltop, the fog seems to be moving from east to west. While that may seem logical, it is not so intuitive given that the ocean is to the west and mountains and desert are to the east. If you watch the wind currents in the area you will see that sometimes they flow towards the ocean and sometimes away from it. That seems natural given the differing cooling and warming paces of land and water. Sometimes you can actually see the fog in a cloud-like formation crawling up or down the ravines around us. that is not the case today, since the fog is more like a shroud that is covering everything evenly. And does not at all feel like a moving thing like a cloud. Of course, I’m not so sure a cloud feels or looks like a cloud when one is in it. It is clearly getting lighter and sunnier to the east. I can see the next ridge now and I can actually see rays of sunshine poking though from the mountains. Its lightening up to the west a bit now too, but there it remains more shrouded than up here on our hilltop. When I look straight up, I am seeing more an more blue, which means it is all thinning out at this point and is sure to lift in the next few minutes.
We haven’t really had morning fog since the June Gloom days left us about two months ago. In my constant quest to define the seasons of my hilltop, I am wondering if I will having more mornings like this as we trip our way into September and October. I know that November is always a rainy month around here, but I am less clear about the two months directly ahead of me. With a week-long trip planned for each of those two months, I have a feeling that it will all pass relatively quickly, so if I want to learn more about them meteorologically speaking, I will need to pay more attention. But morning are my generally busy times on the hilltop. My working world of New York and Europe are up and at’em early, so I have to be as well. I have more energy most mornings (foggy days not withstanding), so I don’t always have the luxury of sitting here letting my thoughts wander to things as seemingly mundane as the weather. In fact, I can feel it now. As the sun is coming on strong in the east and the air all around me is clearing, I am starting to get itchy to get going with my day. It’s only 8:30am, so I shouldn’t be feeling left out or left behind, but I am starting to feel that familiar feeling that I should mobilize. I no longer have road visibility as an excuse, so I really should just finish this story about a silly normal phenomenon like fog and get on with whatever I choose to do today. But I will try to remind myself tomorrow at to whether the fog will return to slow my morning.