Wednesday, January 17, 2007

What Happened The Year You Were Born?

I got this quiz from Paul of Paul's Ponderings. Good to know that Jeffrey Dahmer and I have our birth year in common. Does anyone else think that including a dead serial killer on list of famous people born in 1960 to be a little macabre?

In 1960 (the year you were born)

Dwight Eisenhower is president of the US

Sit-ins being after 4 black college students in North Carolina refuse to move from a deli counter when denied service

A U-2 reconnaissance plane belonging to the US is shot down in the Soviet Union

Hurricane "Donna" strikes the East Coast causing over 100 deaths in the US and the Antilles

John F. Kennedy defeats Vice President Richard Nixon in the presidential race

Cassius Clay (who later took the name Muhammad Ali) wins his first professional fight

Michael Stipe, Tony Robbins, Bono, John F. Kennedy, Jr., and Jeffrey Dahmer are born

Pittsburgh Pirates win the World Series

Philadelphia Eagles win the NFL championship

Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup

Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is the top grossing film

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is published

The Beatles make their debut in Hamburg, Germany

The Flintstones debut

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

So Very Cold

Well, this past weekend I was up at house in Lake Arrowhead hosting the TFB College group - you can read more of the details on Laura's blog. As I had jury duty on Friday, I could not leave until I had been dismissed for the day. This made me a bit nervous because it had snowed above the 900 foot level and temperatures were predicted to be in the teens (degrees Fahrenheit) making the roads both snowy and icy. I had snow chains just in case they hadn't snowplowed the roads. I made without having to put them on, but I did have a little snow berm in front of the house that my friends had to shovel away before I could park.

Fortunately, Laura and some of the students and arrived earlier -they turned on the water and the furnace and were in the process of lighting a fire in the fireplace.
I was soon nice and toasty warm in the house despite the 8 inches of snow on the ground outside. Even when I went outside to get some more firewood, I was okay due to my snow boots, gloves, hat, scarf and coat. I marvelled at the students who had neglected to bring such accessories despite the storm warnings plastered all over the news. I am a cold-natured person and do not like to be colder than is necessary so I own all the appropriate cold weather gear. Laura, on the other hand, likes cold weather and slept outside in her new 20 degree rated sleeping bag. I wisely slept next to the fireplace making sure that there was a log burning the whole night.

The next day was beautiful but the temps remained low; the three water bottles I had left overnight in the car were frozen solid the next morning. I picked up a few items in Cedar Glen and came back. For lunch, we all drove into the Village for Thai food. While the rest of the gang shopped or drank coffee, I walked to the lake edge to snap some photos. With the wind blowing off the lake, the wind chill must have been below zero because as I took my glove off to work the camera, my hand was nearly instantly frozen. I could not bear to take more than one or two pictures before putting my glove back on. (you can see my snow pics in the Flickr box on the right).

The point of my snow story? While I really like the beauty of a white winter, I am a SoCal girl through and through. I don't mind occasionally visiting the white stuff, but to struggle with driving in ice, wearing heavy clothes,having my hair frizz out and feeling cold for months on end is not my idea of fun. So for you people who have lived in the cold climates and like it, please keep it. I'll stick to the boringness of SoCal weather.