Or, Steve, your average winter day in Connecticut.

Still, I should point out, driving on snow is not a skill set of the plains Indians.

Me I’m tucked in for the duration, lacing a little Baileys into my hot chocolate — or rather a little hot chocolate in my Baileys …

See you after hibernation…

and Merry Christmas everyone.

That should have buried us deep, but I think the blizzard-like conditions worked in our favor, as the sideways wind seems to have blown the snow away. My car is 3/4 uncovered (I won’t move it until it’s mostly melted) and the streets aren’t too bad either.

But it snows every year in parts of L.A. County (Palmdale; and usually in the Newhall Pass).

And the San Gabriel Mountains in San Bernandino County visible to the SE on the way to Palm Springs from L.A. always get some winter snow in the higher elevations.

You are mostly right about Southern Cal and Israel, but I think it actually snows in Jerusalem more often.

As for earthquakes we are having small ones here in Central OK almost every week. Only 3.2 or .4, but not something we are used to.

Still, a blizzard may be the only weather disaster that can threaten life and property, yet you can get out and play in it.

I have the utmost sympathy for the unpleasantness that harsh weather is causing others.

(Southern California’s and Israel’s climates are quite similar, so no talk about how this is not really the way Christmas “is”, btw. )

However we are expecting a white Christmas here this year, though not much of one. I still recall the shock when my cousin moved from Dallas to Los Alamos. They asked how much snow Dallas got a year, and she said all together anything from 8 to 10 inches. How much snow in Los Alamos? Anything from 150 to 200 inches …

Then again when was the last time it was 105 there for more than one day a year.

My snowblower is all gassed up and ready to go, though. It’s small, but over the years it’s tackled depths of snow taller than it is. So far. I hope it’s not on its last wheels.

— Steve

PS. I hate mowing grass even more, and I gave that up about ten years ago. My mower broke down, and I never bought another. Even if I had to pay someone else, that was one weekly routine I got rid of very easily!

Now with this dreadful snowstorm, I face the fact that I also can no longer shovel my porch, walk, and driveway. Hopefully someone will show up before it freezes to a giant icecube and I’ll be able get my car out onto the road Monday. As a kid I used to enjoy snow. Now I can’t stand it.

We are even expecting a few flurries here, which actually is an improvement on some of the Christmas in the 80′s I’ve experienced in Texas where we have actually gone from 16 inches on Christmas Eve to 80 Christmas afternoon in a few cases.

But then we also get shut down by the occasional ice storm. The locals don’t do well on ice and snow.

Of course Christmas is in the mind and heart, but I have to admit it was weird the few I spent on Padre Island. Hard to think of Jingle Bells when the girls decking the tree are wearing bikini’s. Guess it’s just whatever you are used to.