Snow where it belongs

Following the passage of the weather front that brought three days of welcome rain, the skies cleared allowing us to see how low the snow level was. It’s really neat to see the horizontal line, where the storm transitioned from rain to snow, so vividly revealed. That’s Mt. San Jacinto, the summit of which is just over 10,000’ above sea-level. The snow line is right around 4,000’. That’s the lowest we’ve seen it in the years we’ve spent here. We are told that it was much lower in the storms that happened while we were home for Christmas.

Another cold storm is forecast for this weekend and that will certainly add to the snowpack and might even lower the snow level.

In the brisk wind that followed the storm’s passing the hundreds of wind generators that spill out of the Banning Pass along Interstate 10, to nearly the city limits of Palm Springs were making electricity. Though not pretty, they are interesting to watch as the spin slowly around.

If you look closely just to the left of the light standard in this shot, you’ll see a snazzy private jet flying the last seconds of its approach to Palm Springs International Airport. Maybe it’s the CEO of General Motors coming to town for a couple rounds of golf.

We are still complaining about the much cooler weather though it hasn’t stopped us from enjoying the hot mineral pools every afternoon. Ahhhhh, life is good.

I suppose it’s only human nature to hope that the long episode of marvelous summer-like weather we’ve enjoyed would continue. So far, this winter’s temperatures have averaged well above normal. For example, the average daily hi temperature for Palm Springs at this time of the year is 72 degrees F., and we’ve had day after day at 80 or above.

Well, reality struck last Saturday, as a cold storm (relative to what we had been enjoying) moved into Southern California and brought some rain with it. It didn’t add up to much over the weekend, only .23” of rain but the big change was in the temperatures…much lower temperatures. Today our hi was only in the low 50’s and the storm brought a beautiful rainbow and another .25” of rain with winds up to 50 mph or so. Now I know if your are where the temps have plummeted to zero or below you’re laughing at my complaining about 50 degree days. If, however, you haven’t worn anything other than shorts for 6 weeks, it is COLD.

About ½” of rain is a good start to greening the desert and bringing on the explosion of Spring wildflowers we so enjoy seeing.

A neighbor left for home and forgot their bird feeder in the tree at the front of their place. Judy moved it to our space and we’ve enjoyed watching the yellow finches and other little birds hanging all over it. It’s just a tub of woven material and the birds just stick their beaks into one of the holes in the weave and extract a seed. We have seen as many as 9 birds on it at one time.

A Wonderful Holiday

Here’s a post that does have pictures. It’s the Martin Luther King Holiday and we’ve just been kickin’ back doing not much of anything, here at Catalina Spa and RV resort.



That’s our motorhome at the center of the picture between the trees. Today may be the last of our 80+ degree days and we’ve taken advantage of it.

It was obvious at sunrise this morning that a lot of moisture had penetrated here in the southern desert with a slight haze softening the view of Mt. San Jacinto. Sunrise is one of our favorite times of day as we watch the light paint the side of that magnificent peak. Though cool at sunrise—about 61 degrees—the temperature quickly rose through the 70’s again bringing many of the residents here in the park to the swimming pools. If you look closely at the panorama below of one of the two swimming pools, you can see a water volley ball game in progress.

I don’t care where you are, or what today’s weather brought for you, these photos sure look inviting.

The day came to a resounding end with this magnificent sunset.

Today is a gift, that's why it's called the PRESENT

No pictures this time because we really haven't been anywhere or done anything of interest. That will change soon as we have some small adventures on the schedule. Next week, for example, we'll do a little Geocaching. There are lots of brand new caches in the area that sound like fun.

In the meantime, it's Sunday and football playoffs--Go Cardinals and Steelers--in case you're wondering where my loyalties lie.

We are really growing weary over all of the over-the-top adulation being layered on our new President, Mr. Obama. Have you read any of the polls and heard the expectations of some of the people interviewed. Some of them fully expect the government to pay their mortgage and give them the deed to their home. Holy cats, it seems we've created a monster that cannot but fail in meeting the expectations of the masses.

Well, I still think one of the funniest sites on the internet is the police blotter from home and I've culled a couple of cuties from a recent edition for your amusement. I wouldn't change them for one entry in the LA's police blotter. Here they are:



Grass Valley Police Department

Thursday A caller from the 300 block of South Auburn Street reported youths on the roof. They were released to their parents.

A woman from the 400 block of Maryland Drive reported her dog was being taken care of by a friend and was missing. The dog was described as a lab-terrier mix named Toby Keith, wearing an army collar with stars.

Friday

A woman from the 800 block of Old Tunnel Road reported hearing someone knocking on her front door and window.2:44 a.m. —

A caller from the 400 block of Pine Street reported a man crawling on his hands and feet near a pontoon boat, possibly looking into vehicles.

Nevada County Sheriff’s Office

Thursday

A caller from Greenhorn Creek reported numerous people shooting in the area. The people were advised not to trespass.

A woman from the 10000 block of School Street reported possible squatters on her neighbor’s property who were very loud at all times of the day.

A woman from the 29000 block of Highway 49 reported drunken people on her property were refusing to leave. She agreed to leave for the night, and the other people would leave in the morning.

Friday

Nevada CityPolice Department

Thursday

A caller from Highway 49 and Uren Street reported a woman “flapping around, trying to fly.” She could not be located.

It's a horrible crime wave at home.

I hope you are all well (we saw our desert doctors last week and nothing bad was found) and happy. Like everyone on the West Coast we've enjoyed a week of absolutely marvelous weather with hi's in the 80's and lows in the 50's. When the sun goes down, though, it gets cool really fast making sitting outside in the evening something for long pants and jackets. It's great, though.

It has been said, “When life deals you a lemon, make lemonade.” It’s been a precept I’ve attempted to follow through all of the many unwelcome health issues with which I have struggled for the past 35 years or so. Sometimes the lemonade was sweet, sometimes a little sour, but looking for the bright side of any adversity has always seemed more rewarding than dwelling on pain, discomfort, or limitation.

Well, another lemon rolled our way yesterday as we were traveling to Carefree, AZ, to visit our friend Sue who, together with her late husband Dave, we first met on our Mexico RV train adventure. About halfway there we stopped to stretch our legs and walk around a bit. I left the motorhome and stood on the curbside in the chilly morning air. Suddenly I noticed a large shiny puddle growing under the diesel engine at the rear of our coach. Smelling a bit of it on my finger confirmed it was diesel fuel and it was leaking quite rapidly. Where we stopped was right in front of a place advertising diesel truck repairs but when we approached the surly mechanic he informed us he would not work on a motorhome under any circumstances. I was finally able to convince him to at least look at the engine from the rear. He too confirmed a fuel leak from somewhere high up on the engine and said he wouldn’t drive the coach anywhere.

Soooo, for the second time since we’ve owned the RV we called our roadside service company and arranged for a tow to a garage in Quartzite, AZ. That was a 27 mile trip back in the direction from which we had just come. The leak was discovered at about 11:00 a.m. but, due to the lengthy delay in getting a big rig flatbed tow truck to us, getting all loaded, and traveling the miles, it was nearly 5 p.m. by the time we were unloaded at the mechanic’s garage.

He came aboard, lifted our bed to get to the engine, and found we had blown a hole in a fuel line leading to one of the fuel injectors. He said a special part would have to be fabricated in Blythe, CA (another 25 miles west), the next day as the fuel line had a special fitting on the end of it.

Today the new line was installed and we were able to get back on the road but, due to another commitment, we had to cancel our Carefree trip altogether. All in all it was a simple minor repair but had a large effect on our plans. We’re both sorry to have not been able to complete that part of our trip and visit with Sue. Unforeseen circumstances have now stopped us from completing that trip twice in the past 5 months.

Now, what was all that stuff about lemonade? Well, during the tow for those 27 miles we were able to achieve an infinite miles per gallon of fuel. Even more meaningful is that had we not stopped to take that break we could have ended up with a serious fire in the engine compartment which, given our being in the middle of nowhere, would probably have resulted in the total destruction of the coach and our Jeep we tow behind us. Given that scenario it could even have been worse ending in injury to us or worse. So once again that angel was sitting on our shoulders taking care of us and serving a big frosty glass of lemonade.

Thank you!

MERRY CHRISTMAS IN GRASS VALLEY

I don't imagine many people are wishing for a whiter Christmas than what most of the country has received this year. Yet, this morning our world has again turned white. We awoke to rain and sleet that quickly turned to heavy snow and, almost instantly, all of the ground that had been revealed disappeared beneath a blanket of new white. Here's a small album of photos taken this morning in our front and back yards.

Here atop our mountain is the home of our nearest neighbor. They are also snowbirds usually at Sky Valley this time of the year.

The sign reads, "Swimsuits optional beyond this point" but, thankfully, the hot tub isn't operating at this time of the years or there would be goose pimples on places not accustomed to them.

Looking east from our deck towards the peaks of the High Sierra Nevadas in a brief sunbreak.

Another brief shaft of sunlight highlights our backyard.

Judy and I hope you've had a wonderful and meaningful Christmas this year.

A Firefighter's Family Christmas

WE Wii’d THE NIGHT AWAY!

Holiday schedules become very flexible when a family member works in emergency services. Our son Kevin, as almost all of the readers of this blog know, is an officer in our largest fire department. As often as not, his schedule ends up with him working on many of the major holidays, and this year was no exception.

In depth negotiations with Santa Claus resulted in a special delivery several days early so the whole family could celebrate the holiday together. Therefore, Tuesday, Dec. 23rd became our Christmas.

A little more snow fell throughout the day, ending before sundown. Our unplowed road is rapidly turning into an icy downhill slide as the white stuff gets packed down hard on the gravel. Only the hearty are venturing out until those conditions improve substantially.

Last year we had the pleasure of having our daughter Laurie and Granddaughter here from North Carolina but this year, with the economy being as tough as it is, they stayed home. We missed their smiling faces around the dinner table this year. Dinner was wonderful though repeated attempts to get the two boys to make nice faces were a complete failure. We settled on a nice picture of we four adults with the two munchkins doing what they felt like doing.

A very generous Santa delivered a Wii fit video game system to Kevin and Dodi’s boys and, when they all arrived at our house that evening for Christmas Dinner and our gifting, they brought it along with them. What a lot of fun. We bowled, raced, played baseball and laughed and shouted at successes and failures alike. I can clearly see why the Wii is so popular.

Waking on the morning of Christmas Eve, we discovered that Mother Nature was doing her thing again and moderate snow was falling. The trees looked as though they had been dusted with powdered sugar.

Oh the First Snowfall of the Winter

Let it snow, let it snow…….OH JUST STOP IT!

The first snowstorm happened before we returned home and the second one arrived last night, lasting into this morning.

Though we didn’t measure, it appeared we had something like 10” on the ground when we got here and another 5” or so fell overnight. Now we have 12 or `13” on the flat after some of the original compressed down.

In recent years our snow accumulation has been pretty light but this year's weather forecasts, out through the first of the year, look like Grass Valley will keep this snow around for a while.

More storms are forecast to arrive starting Saturday night, DEC 20th lasting through all of next week with some precip arriving each day. Some of that will be snow and some of it rain but it makes for a rather soggy holiday in Grass Valley.

Old Rowdy ventured out in the white stuff today and didn’t think much of it. I can just imagine how that cold white stuff felt on his belly and other stuff located in that area. Brrrrrrrr!

The Christmas cookie baking began today making the inside of our home smell wonderful with brown sugar, vanilla, and sugar odors filling the air. In the bath, however, the smell is of Ben Gay for my joints that ache in the stormy weather.

We're at home for Christmas

Home again, home again, jiggity jig:

We celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary driving north on State Highway 99, from Desert Hot Springs to Grass Valley. That trip is nearly 600 miles and that’s a long days drive.

When we awoke yesterday morning the heavy rains of the previous day and evening had come to an end and the day was washed in brilliant sunshine. Nearly an inch of vitally important rain had fallen in the previous day and while there was still great concern in the areas that had been stripped of all their vegetation in the recent wildfires, no large movements of mud were reported on the morning news.

Snow had fallen quite heavily on the high desert around Yucca Valley, Lancaster, and Apple Valley and, of course on the mountains around the Palm Springs area. The mountains are always beautiful but dressed in winter white they are at their best.

In California’s central valley we encountered several hours of rain showers while driving through. As we approached Grass Valley on Highway 49, we began to see snow on the shoulders of the road. It increased as we rose up the mountains until the ground was totally covered with something less than one foot all over town.

Of even a bigger shock to our systems, however, was the temperatures which stood at about 26 F downtown…..brrrrrrrr. After a month and a half down in the 70’s and 80’s of the desert if felt like we had stepped into a freezer.

In this morning’s early light we drew the drapes and got our first good look at a magically white winter wonderland. The bird feeder on the deck was decorated with what looked like a huge cotton ball while the icicles dripped from the rain gutters.
Judy immediately set about decorating for Christmas and, by the end of day one, the tree was up, full of lights and our heirloom ornaments. The potpourri pot is bubbling, the village is on the mantel, and the only cds in the player are those containing Christmas favorites such as Mannheim Steamroller (we were fans long before Rush Limbaugh discovered them) and Ray Charles.)
The grandsons arrived after school and found it a little hard to understand why Grandma only had package cookies and none of the wonderful home-baked Christmas confections their taste buds were remembering. Life’s lessons continue to be learned.
Grandma tried explaining that everything would be done in its time but I don’t think they really understood.
So, we’re home for Christmas. The weather guy, by the way, says we’ve many more snowy days on the horizon so it seems certain that Christmas will be white.

More Merriment

I was struck the other day with the thought that the desert environment we live in is much more like the conditions into which the Christ Child was born. Bethlehem is and was in the desert with palm trees and other prickly things. The vision of a white Christmas, with sleighs and evergreens, is purely European and American.

But even here on the desert, far away from home and family, the joy and excitement that is the Christmas Season do infect us. It’s true that most of us don’t get carried away with decorations in our restricted-space homes on wheels, but we still decorate. Some even find creative uses for the desert cacti and palm trees found everywhere around us.

In fact, some folks, mainly those who staff these resorts during the whole winter, do go all out—nearly over the top—in exterior holiday décor.

Of course the resort at which we stay has been fully decorated with animals made from the dry end of palm fronds decorating every street post and all of the various buildings sporting icicle lights and other decorations. One of the differences between these displays and typical commercial efforts is that these were all thought of, designed, and created and installed by the volunteer workers who staff these places in exchange for rent or having to move after a set number of days. They are a hard working group and did a great job on the decorations this year. The penguins sliding down the faux snow slope are especially cute.
Here at our house, Knute the polar bear (Yeah, named after what was the little orphan bear in Germany) sits proudly at the front of our yard greeting all who pass. The candy cane lights around him glow nicely in the dark.

Inside our little home we have our miniature tree with politically and environmentally correct LED lights and, since we normally hit the sack around ten, we have no problem complying with the resort’s request to extinguish holiday lights by eleven p.m.

The “Holly” channel on our XM Satellite radio is capable of playing Christmas music 24/7 and Forest our Alaskan Bear sits in the driver’s seat wearing his Christmas outfit—a Santa hat and his tee shirt from North Pole Alaska.

Oh yes, we’re very Christmassy – Christmassie – Christmassee – oh whatever. We’ve no place to store gifts so our clothes end up in plastic bags stuffed under the bed, but we work around the situation. The packages for back east have all been shipped and due to arrive any day now. Our stockings will be hung with care but that will have to wait until we journey back to our very own chimney in Grass Valley. There Judy will fill the house with the cherished decorations we’ve collected over the years and the wonderful smells of Christmas--cookies, pumpkin pie, apple cider, turkey, and who could forget—SWEDISH MEATBALLS.

The grandsons will visit with sugarplums dancing in their eyes, certainly not prepared for the disappointment of opening a package with a shirt or pair of pants inside. They’re still at the age when they believe all gifts should be things to play with. Underpants as gifts are just one of life’s hard lessons. Growing up is tough. Those cookies will soften the blow at least in part and they’ll look back and remember the warmth and love of Christmas at Grandma’s house.

Oh yeah, it’ll be Christmas 2008 at our home whether here or there.

Though not a Christmas picture at all, we came upon this scene in the resort with Mt. San Jacinto backlighted by the setting sun. Really pretty, don't you think?