December 14th, 2008:

It’s currently 43 degrees and raining in Berkeley, CA. This would not be a problem except for two errors on my part. Firstly, my apartment is, so far as we can tell, unheated. Secondly, seduced by the image of California in popular culture and those still fantastical palm trees, I moved out here without a single item from the large collection of polar fleece clothing I’d accumulated in my life up to that point.