Octember.

We're having the 23rd day in a row of below-average temperatures. And by "below-average", I don't mean "It was supposed to be 70 degrees and we only hit 69." Usual daily highs this time of year are in the mid sixties, and we'll be lucky to claw our way out of the low fifties by late afternoon.

On the heels of the second coldest July on record, this means that we got bupkis for tomatoes. The grape tomato plants in the backyard are still covered with stunted green things that can only be called tomatoes because of the position they occupy on the end of the stems. The neighbor's Tabasco pepper plant only half-ripened as well, and our crop of Serranos could have been bigger, with four plants yielding maybe five or six peppers worth eating.