So ya don't like winter..

[Normspeed]

Well, we Southern Californians may seem smug about the winter temps, but there's another side to our weather. I was sorting some old photos tonight and came across these, taken about 1/2 mile from my house, a couple years ago when we had a little shindig called the Grand Prix fire...That ridge is maybe a mile from my house as the crow flies. Scary.

[randroid]

Norm,

Because of my Father's occupation I was raised in Orange County and am well aware of the fires we all enjoyed so much, and to call them scary is almost an understatement. To see a wall of fire that, with a subtle shift of wind, could be in your yard and on your roof in less time than it takes to watch a cartoon brings a whole new sense of priorities to which of our possessions are more important than the others, but that isn't what most of us are talking about.

The power steering\alternator belts on my SAAB are just new enough to have stretched to where they're making any noise at all, which is too much for me. You want to put any money that the first damn thing I'm going to do tomorrow morning is grab a few cold wrenches from my unheated garage and charge head-long into +9 degree snow to tighten them?

That's what sucks about Winter, but I'm not complaining about living in Colorado; this is the norm (no pun, but you must hear that alot) and I choose it over anywhere else as my sort of place to live.

My personal temperature comfort minimum for working outside is +40, although I'd take 30 degrees more in a New York second. The point is that we're all so much into our projects that we don't want any outside influence dictating when we get to play with them, but I'll trade that for watching the snow roll down the Front Range through the Big Thompson Canyon.

My Lady Wife Lynn would like a china cabinet but $100,000 in surgeries and such have kinda put a damper on that (we got the majority of that money covered other than out of our pockets but it still took a big chunk), so I found an old gun cabinet that will work just fine with a little work that's within my capabilities. I wish we had an ambient temp that would allow me to chemically strip it, and that sucks about Winter, but the case is standing in the garage and every now and then I catch her looking at it when she parks in the garage and smiling as she imagines what it will be, so we have time to do other things.

I want to paint my '48 P-15 using Rustoleum and a roller, but I need to strip the car of five coats of old paint first. How much time should I give bare metal to rust before I'm able to give it it's first coat of primer? I'll tell you this; once I start that job I'll be one organized SOB!

Not everybody is suited to this climate and I'm not hyping for the local Chamber, but if I'm going to live here I'll bitch about it when and where and how I want. I'll also brag about it.

I have a photo of a seven-point Elk looking over the roof of my Plymouth at an eight-point Elk. Those boys spent nine Winters in my backyard while a family of five Mulies lived in a creek bed in front. Winters suck!

I suppose we all need to make trades; I haven't been in smog for more years than I can remember.

Whew, I don't think I've ever written anything like this before.

-Randy

[Normspeed]

Yeah, I grew up in the northeast so I'm no stranger to winter, but these days I have less tolerance for the cold. Colorado is one beautiful state. Been through there a few times in my younger days.

Smog, at least visible smog, is way down from what I remember seeing back in the 60's. I don't even recall the last time I've heard mention of even a first stage smog alert. The only time you become aware of the dirty air is traveling down the pass from the high desert or from Palm Springs, where you can see across the San Bernardino area.

Hope your wife is doing better, I recall she had quite a tough time. And you are a heckuva husband to convert a perfectly good gun cabinet to a china cabinet. Now that's true love!

[Don Coatney]

Whew, I don't think I've ever written anything like this before.

-Randy

Not true! As Patton said about Rommell "I read your book"!

[47heaven]

Well, we Southern Californians may seem smug about the winter temps, but there's another side to our weather. I was sorting some old photos tonight and came across these, taken about 1/2 mile from my house, a couple years ago when we had a little shindig called the Grand Prix fire...That ridge is maybe a mile from my house as the crow flies. Scary.

Norm, if that was right above your house, then that was the fire that burned a year before the 2003 Grand Prix fire. If I recall, that fire burned from the westto the east...sort of ending before Claremont. The Grand Prix fire burned from the east to the west, due to the Santa Anas. I watched that fire you have posted from up on Wheeler that night and could see San Dimas Canyon Rd. going into it. It looked like a road going into a firey hell...so to speak.

[Dennis Hemingway]

Smog, at least visible smog, is way down from what I remember seeing back in the 60's. The only time you become aware of the dirty air is traveling down the pass from the high desert or from Palm Springs, where you can see across the San Bernardino area.

I thought I would die when I moved to the High Desert from the San Berdo area, I couldn't see anything to beathe.

Dennis:D

[Normspeed]

Dennis, ain't it the truth!

Darin, I think you're right. Those were on an old Kodak Picture Disk on floppy, and the disks are dated 2002. You have a very good memory!

[Jims50chrysler]

Thanks for that but I still don't like Winter.

Jim

[Brendan D25]

I hear you, Jim. I'm sitting here today to see how long it will take for 35cm. of snow to fall, so I'll be able to go out in the morning at -13C to play with the snowblower. Brendan.

[PatS....]

A few pics by a local photographer of our last day or two:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sherlock77/