I hate winter.

I was born and raised in Southern California. I have lived here all my life, so anytime the temperature drops below 70 degrees, I'm cold. Don't laugh. A lot of other native Californians I know feel the same way.

Today was a day to dress like a psycho. As I left the house this moring to take my son to work, I was wearing Levi's, a shirt, a sweater, and my wool coat and gloves with sneakers. If the cold wind stopped blowing for a minute, you would have thought it was a warm spring day. I could feel the sun on my face warming my cheeks. The moment the wind started up again, I was chilled. I threw my hood up over my head and hustled over to the carport.

I decided I needed a drive down the coast to help clear my head after I dropped off my son. Down meaning south of where I live. I drove west to Jamboree and then south on PCH until Crown Valley Parkway. Along the way I saw that there were people in shorts, there were people in sweats. There were people bundled up like me in wool pea coats and sneakers and then some just walking around in a t-shirt and running shorts like it was any other day for them regardless of the drop in temperature. I saw shorts and sweat tops, I saw typical beach attire at newpoert for those playing volley ball at 10AM in the morning. As I made the left turn onto Crown Valley and climbed up the hill, I could clearly see the remnants of last nights storm deposited in white all over the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains. Just looking at it made me cold. I would say at this time, the snow is at about the 6000 ft level after the first good rain we've had maybe since August.

The sad thing is that it's only December 9th and it isn't truly winter until December 21st.