Out of the Blue: Hotter, drier Januaries still hold us in thrall

We just learned 2014 was the hottest recorded year on the planet. I remember January of last year. It was like, well, January this year. Brilliant. Except for the minor inconvenience of being in a severe drought. Somehow our lawns are still green and our landscapes lush.

But let’s not dwell in buzzkillery. God will make it rain. Or Elon Musk. And besides, unemployment is down, interest rates are low and the stock markets are up. As Kool & The Gang says, “Celebrate good times, come on!”

So without further adieu, put your hands together for the searing start to 2015 known as January. Yep, that’s you, January. Take a bow. Another one for the record books.

January is the new July.

June? You can have that tired hag. Cold, monochromatic and bloated with tourists who harsh our mellow. But January? Everyday perfection, sunny and warm, with that daily curtain call of colors known as sunsets.The hallucinatory descent into dusk when the sky alights with billowing ribbons of pink, blowing one final kiss to the day before bowing into night.

And oh those 40-degree nights. A subtle, not altogether unwelcome reminder that it is indeed January and that we get to pull out our wool and cashmere layers that we bought in Europe. Oh sure, we suffer the occasional hardship, like when there aren’t enough outdoor heaters in restaurants. These are hard times, brother.

But January, oh how smug you are in your superiority to Januaries everywhere else. You’re gluttonous in your glory, like Secretariat, or Michael Jordan.

You even graced us with a two rainstorms so amazingly wet, so wonderfully healing to every inch of our land. Your denouement was a blanket of snow billowing in our eastern corridor, the ocean radiating the sun’s reflection from the west. It was almost too much for the eyes to bear.

January is when our post-rain canyons turn emerald and resemble Ireland; when the fresh, mentholated scent of eucalyptus gives us a sinus bath. January is a mighty spectrum of color, radiating the rich and decreasingly filtered California sun: green hills, blue oceans and of course those Technicolor sunsets.

January is when you can look straight down to the sea floor. When there is so little wind the sea resembles a vast pond filled with amazing sea life — garibaldi everywhere, sea grass swaying in the depths, towers of golden kelp playfully reaching toward the sun. Plus a cavalcade of migrating whales for our viewing pleasure. Even the orcas dropped by our placid playground.

We are so privileged to live in Laguna, and not in one of those vast, disorienting tangles of homogenous, alienating tract homes and subdivisions known as everywhere else.

January you were a gem. You may be getting a little hotter, a little drier, but you still hold us numb from the perils of reality.

BILLY FRIED has a radio show on KX93.5 from 8 to 10 p.m. Thursdays called “Laguna Talks.” He is the chief experience officer of La Vida Laguna and member of the board of Transition Laguna. He can be reached at billy@lavidalaguna.com.