Via SacBee: Summer bids adieu, with nary a scorcher

     Somebody asked me the other day if I was ready for summer to end. My reply? I’m still waiting for it to start.    Here we are, deep into September, and we’ve had only eight days in Sacramento where the thermometer has topped 100 degrees. On Wednesday it rained. Thursday was sweater weather. If I were Oliver Stone, I’d suspect there was a conspiracy afoot. Has the city of Portland been tampering with our weather?    Yes, I realize that some of you – particularly the Bay Area transplants – have been enjoying these cool climes. But I am a Central Valley boy. I was bred on 100-degree weather. For me, it can’t be a real summer unless the asphalt melts and the only relief is a swan dive into a Sierra lake. Summer is supposed to be a season for tomatoes that ripen in June, not September. At the moment, I still have at least a bushel of green tomatoes on the vine. And no, I am not looking for relish recipes.      Is there any relief from this chill? Apparently not. Even in Death Valley, the high temperature was projected to be a frigid 95 degrees Thursday. Meanwhile, the rest of the country has generally cooled off after one of the hottest summers on record. Blame it on global weirding.    All I know is – I want my summer back. Fall will be here in less than two weeks. We’ve been robbed.