Now shall I try to get another cool season veggie in the vacated space,
or should I wait a few weeks for an early sowing of something for the
summer season? -aem

You could try both, using something that comes up quick--leaf lettuce
from a store-bought 6-pack, radishes (30 days to maturity from seed),
brocolli rabe (45 days to stalk harvest from seed--might be simliar to
what you just ate), spinach (about 50 days).

The wholel planet's weather is screwed up this year. My theory is that
it is a combination of global warming and also some transients left
over from the 2004 Tsunami earthquake, that increased the earth's
rotation 3 millionths of a second and shifted the rotational axis by
about 3/4 of an inch (similar to a skater pulling in arms to spin
faster). That is, I think the ocean currents have been screwed up by
these factors and that is why the weather is wacky.

With that in mind I suspect that we aren't going to have many frost
days this year, you might try planting some summer stuff now,
especially if you have a frost blanket to cover it if there are a few
random frost days. I don't think we're going to see weeks of
frostyness as we have in some past years. (I'm NE of Salinas).

I have started basil and peppers in peat pots already because I think
we're going to have an prolonged spring/early summer this year. But
I'm thinking about putting out another crop of quinoa (a cold-season
crop) because I think it won't get hot enough to ruin it until June or
so.