"Jean B." wrote:
>
> Oh, wait a minute. What about the place in California that has a
> garlic festival. Gilroy? Would anything freeze there?

Yes, it is Gilroy. We do get freezing temperatures
every winter, but it's been maybe 20 years since we had
a really hard freeze. That was when the pine trees were
weakened and they were then attacked by pine borer beetles
that spread a fungus which killed many of them.

I've noticed the weather has become much milder over the
years. I can't remember the last 100+ degree day.
Back in the 1970's, we would get some 100+ degree days
every summer, and in a hot summer we sometimes would have
a whole week of 100+ days.

It used to be that at least once every winter we'd have wind
strong enough to blow out the pilot light of my water heater.
The winter before last was the first in 30 years when that
did not happen, and last winter it only was blown out once.

By the way, I checked garlic pricing today, and you can still
buy a sock of five garlic heads for $0.99, so the price
increase has not hit our shores yet.