By Baron Helmut von Badde-Veather

SAN FRANCISCO, SEPT. 30 -- Residents of San Francisco's western neighborhoods celebrated the arrival of summer on Sunday with a festive ceremony at Ocean Beach. The event was followed a few minutes later by a ritual marking summer's departure.

Residents of the City's western neighborhoods -- including the Sunset, Parkside, Richmond, and West of Twin Peaks districts -- have long marked the arrival of summer with festivities that symbolize the season's fleeting visit to the west side. A typical summer in western San Francisco lasts only four to six days, compared with an average of two months in other parts of the City and four months in the rest of the continental U.S.

West-siders typically define summer as the first three-day period of the year in which the daily high temperature remains above 65º and the fog line stays west of Sunset Boulevard. Summer is considered over with the arrival of the first fog bank, an unfortunately common occurrence, especially along the ocean.

Sunday's ceremony followed the quixotic and at times baffling tradition first established in the area in 1972. The ceremony features a huge papier mâché replica of the most notable symbol of western San Francisco, the Doggie Diner head from Carousel Diner on Sloat Boulevard.

Per custom, the Doggie Diner head was doused in kerosene and mounted on a long pole that was raised skyward through a skein of gray cotton candy chosen to symbolize the thick fog that permeates the area through mid-September. The head was set afire and allowed to burn brightly for several seconds, then was doused in the chilly waters of the Pacific Ocean, a stirring denouement that represented summer's ephemeral nature in San Francisco.

Area residents agreed that this year's summer was one of the best on record, with five straight days of sunshine and high temperatures topping 95º. Conditions got so severe that one resident, Brendan O'Sullivan, even considered the purchase of a fan at the local True Value hardware store.

Fortunately, the return of the fog and chilly temperatures on October 1 prompted cooler heads to prevail.

"And a good thing, too," O'Sullivan said. "That would've been the biggest waste of 20 bucks since I bought a bathing suit in 1987."