Local Warming

The temperature of the sea, over the hill and about a mile from our home, is 41 degrees Fahrenheit. That means that for the next few months, whenever the wind blows out of the south or east it won’t be warm in our neighborhood, in our yard. Incredibly, by August the sea surface temperature will be 30 degrees warmer than it is now – in the 70-degree range, and the warmth will influence our neighborhood’s microclimate in the opposite way. Baby, of course, knows nothing of all this. She can tell when it’s warm or cold out, vaguely, but she has no idea how her father is looking forward to the ocean’s transformation. She doesn’t yet know that I long to frolic in the sea with her.