How cold is it?

ok Vaughn
how far is it from your place to that mountain? I didn't think SoCal got snow at all?

Maybe a half mile as the crow flies. I shot that pic with my 18-55mm zoom, and cropped it some, but it's not a long way off.

We get snow on the local mountains every year, and even once in a blue moon it gets cold enough to stick where I live. (I'm up in the foothills, though, at about 1300 feet above sea level. They don't see much if any snow in Hollywierd or Beverly Hills.)

It doesn't freeze often, but it still happens. This was taken in my back yard a few years ago...

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And I see a view like this about two or three times a year in the mountains above us. This was taken about 1/2 mile from our house...

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About 70 miles east of us is Big Bear, a local ski mountain. You can literally surf in the morning, play golf at lunch, and go skiing in the afternoon in SoCal.
 

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I didn't think SoCal got snow at all?

For some reason, that reminded me of Frank W. Epperson. From Tom Tucker's book Brainstorm! The Stories of Twenty American Kid Inventors:
The boy held the concoction in his hand: a glass containing flavored soda water left outside overnight. It had frozen. All over San Francisco, a cold snap had worked its magic and even the surface of Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park had turned solid. His mixing stick was frozen into the mixture, too, and now protruded like a handle. But the warmth from the palm of his hand was enough: the icy mass slipped free of the glass and his fingers clutched the wooden stick. The year was 1905. At age eleven, Frank W. Epperson was holding the world's first Popsicle.

[...] how did an eleven-year-old boy think up the Popsicle? It started in his neighborhood. The kids had decided to build a mini-amusement park on the lawn across the street from the Epperson home, and Frank was assigned the run the soda-water stand. He would buy packets of soda powder [KJB: ???] and flavors at the grocery store and try to mix exotic drinks.

[...] "I wondered how {the snack} would taste frozen so I left a little in a glass overnight on the back porch," wrote the inventor in his unpublished memoir.

Happy with the first results, Frank tried repeatedly to duplicate them, but that winter Bay Area temperatures never dropped so low again.​

It wasn't until 1921 that Frank chose to develop this invention over several of his others. The original Ep-sicle was a "frozen fruit bar full of chunks of pineapple and cherry," said Frank's son John. "When we decided to make a clear fruit syrup bar we needed another name." The family agreed on Popsicle, which debuted in 1923.
 
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ok Vaughn
how far is it from your place to that mountain? I didn't think SoCal got snow at all?

Oh we get snow. We just keep it where it belongs so we can go visit it after surfing in the morning. I understand that in some states, snow is allowed to just fall all over everything but, I am not sure if someone is pulling my leg or not. :rofl:
 
Oh we get snow. We just keep it where it belongs so we can go visit it after surfing in the morning. I understand that in some states, snow is allowed to just fall all over everything but, I am not sure if someone is pulling my leg or not. :rofl:


Ohhhhh Right... that's why there are chain up stations at all of the mountain areas... cause many drivers in the warm flat lands don't or can't learn to drive in it.

My one time through a chain station was heading through Donner pass after a snowfall, I had my '90 F150 4x2, with my 27' camper behind it. I had nice ATX tires on it, and they took one look at the camper, plus the tires, and the NY plates, and I got a bypass on the Chain station... I dunno why, but everyone IN the chain station gave me dirty looks when I drove by. :rolleyes:

Snow sure was pretty going down the hill into the bay area though... :rofl:
 
This year I've only seen -15 or so. Years ago when I was up in the Yooper Land we had -36 F. I had to go out to the barn to fire some stoves to keep the potatoes in cold storage from freezing. The radio was on and a local called in to say he had "went to da store to get anudder dermomater cause da firt one was broke, Second one ain't no good either, both stuck on turdysix below" The wind was blowing something awful so I figure the wind chill was way below -50. You don't want any skin exposed for long in that.
It's cold enough to make spit bounce.
 
Hey Vaughn, I get the biggest kick listening to dem Yoopers. My wife had to be de-programed after moving down to troll land from the U.P. Typically they leave many of the verbs out of speech. I'll never forget the day she asked me "ya want to go mall?" It took me a few seconds to figure out we weren't looking for someone to mug or beat half to death. She sounds pretty normal nowadays. :D After working up there for a few months I found myself blending in pretty easy. Yooper speech has moderated some these last few years. The bigger cities have grown and modernized quite a bit. The heavy Scandinavian ethnicity has been watered down. Where with television use widespread people are losing their distinct social character.

My wife's uncle is legendary in the Western U.P. area. I have thought about writing a book about his very colorful life. I think many people would think his exploits fictional. He was a mountain of a Finlander who played guitar very well and was often entertainment and bouncer at the same time. The first time I met him he showed up "wit dezchert" at the in-laws. He had 2, one gallon cartons of vanilla ice cream and handed one to my Mother-in-law and grabbed a big serving spoon and sat down and ate the other gallon all by himself. :rofl:

He served in the Navy during the Korean war and the Navy ended up making a training film of how to load anti-aircraft guns with "uncle Heeny" doing the loading. The fleet admiral had never seen this type of gun fired so rapidly. When Heeny was asked how he was able to load so fast he said. "it ain't much different dan trowing wood blocks in da stove at home when it's cold out" :D

I've heard 100's of stories of similar nature, and laughed myself almost sick on many occasion. Sadly Heeny died from alcohol addiction a few years back. He truly was a unique character.
 
The way it was snowing in Minneapolis yesterday noontime, I can see how you were going to get the predicted 14 to 18 inches by tonight Dan. :eek:

When we were flying into LA yesterday afternoon Vaughn, I was noticing how much snow you had up in the mountains. I never saw it that white before. :huh: And it was only 55 deg.? (Much better than the 20 deg I left in Buffalo that morning.) It felt good to get back home and 74 deg last night @ 7:30 pm. :thumb:

Aloha
 
Hey Vaughn, I get the biggest kick listening to dem Yoopers. My wife had to be de-programed after moving down to troll land from the U.P...

It's interesting how some folks can reprogram their speech habits and others can't. My dad grew up in Texas, but doesn't talk like a Texan until he's been among other Texans for a few days. Other people never seem to lose the accent, no matter how long they've been away from wherever they picked it up.

When I was in elementary school, we lived for a few years in a small Northern New Mexico, and my sisters and I all had Hispanic accents, because all of our friends did. When we moved to the big city (Albuquerque) the accent went away within a few months. At other times, I've been in Eastern New Mexico (Texas Lite), and within days I'll have picked up a Texas twang. Now that I live in SoCal, it's like, dude, y'know, like I have like totally no accent at all. Totally. :D

Tony, you picked a fine time of the year to go to Buffalo. :p
 
it snowed last night, so yea IT"S COLD !

I did get honked at this morning by a lady 50 yards away from me while I was crossing the street to go to Ziggy's for breakfast. She defiantly had a Cold Heart :rofl: I just :wave:.
 
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