... in like a lion ....

In the last hour, the thermometer on my back porch has gone from 42° to 52°. It’s 38° in Akron, 72° in Houston and 44° in New York. Yahoo Weather says it will get up to 56° here in SoCal. Everything’s still wet from Friday’s rain. I think we only have two seasons here … Rainy and Hot. Except when it doesn’t rain, then we just have Hot. I’m not actually complaining, mind you. I hate cold weather. I don’t miss snow. I don’t miss ice. If I find myself getting nostalgic at Christmas, I pull out my DVD of White Christmas and watch the end of the movie where they open the back of the barn and there’s falling snow behind the brightly lit Christmas tree. The End. Perfect.

I’m not really all that fond of the rain either. It’s just that we could turn into desert real fast without the rain. My back yard hasn’t been green for about two years. It’s green now and it doesn’t crunch when you walk on it. It’s weeds, but it is green.

I’m also susceptible to the “winter blues.” A long time ago I spent a week here and fell in love with the warmth and the unbelievably clear, blue sky. A year later, I got in my little yellow Volkswagen and drove a lot of miles to get here. I’m still glad I did.

Last week’s earthquake in New Zealand is a frightening reminder that, even in paradise, hell is just around the corner. I guess we just have to pick our poison.