Organisms, both plant and animal, have the ability to adapt to changes in their environment. Changes such as adaptation to altitude or temperature are well-documented. Many mammals shed fur in warm seasons and grow thicker fur in cold seasons.

Human acclimatization is interesting. Last winter, in Michigan, I would have considered a December day with the temperature approaching 60 degrees a shirtsleeve day. No need for a jacket in that weather! One year later, after spending the last few months in a warm climate, 60 degrees feels cold.

You can tell who’s a local Californian and who’s a tourist at this time of year by how they’re dressed. To the locals, this is winter and they dress the part. We see people wearing winter coats and boots, hats and scarves and know immediately that they’re warm weather people. We see other people wearing shorts when the temperature is in the low 60s and we know immediately that they’re visiting from a colder climate. I’ll let you guess which camp we fall into these days.

The weather here over the past week has been five to ten degrees colder than average. Yesterday the thermometer struggled to reach 60. The overnight lows have dipped into the 40s a few times. We’ve been running a ceramic space heater in the coach. This keeps the overnight temperature in the coach in the low 60s. We sleep comfortably at that temperature under a down comforter. Yesterday, Donna fired up the furnace for a short time to bring the coach temperature up before she showered.

The long range forecast is favorable. We will have daytime highs in the upper 60s and 70s over the next eight days. It will still cool quickly after sundown, but I’m not going to complain. This acclimatization phenomenon would make it difficult for me to spend a day in the north now, unless I could grow a fur coat.