Holly's Notes and Condition

Snow on Mountains, Clear Beautiful Morning

After raining for the last 2 1/2 days, we awoke this morning to crystal clear weather outside. There is snow on both Santiago Peak and Saddleback Mountain, north of our house. It is cold and the wind has started to pick up, enough so, that there are white caps on the Lake below our house. I could see the Pacific Ocean off Dana Point, south of us, the entire top of Catalina Island 26 miles offshore, the ocean and ships coming out of Long Beach Harbor, Palos Verdes Peninsula, Signal Hill in Long Beach and unique this morning: the Santa Monica Mountains with Malibu on the other side to the WNW of us, were clearly outlined this morning and we thought we could even make out the Mountain Range that separates LA from Ventura - remarkably clear this morning. Very unusual that we have that much clarity between us and the valley to the WNW - usually that hazes in pretty quickly. Due to the wind, the jets are taking off from John Wayne Airport in a reverse flight pattern than what they usually do. They are taking off towards Santa Ana as opposed to their usual pattern of taking off over Newport and Balboa Island and the Pacific Ocean. The wind is howling now, I'll have to take our big flag down off the pole in back - its really flapping in the wind and the aluminum pole is torquing with it - that's what happens when you have a 5'x7' nylon flag high up on a 20' flag pole. (During a really strong wind storm 3 years ago, about this same time of year, we actually had our flag pole fall over. Dave had to reset it, this time anchoring it deeper into the ground and with a 2' concrete base. We originally placed our American flag on the high pole out back, where it is visible all the way to the 241 Tollroad, in memory of the victims of the 9-11 attacks of 2001.)

Dave is out front, working on 'phase 2' of our Christmas decorations - an inflatable, animated 6' Santa in a helicopter, which meant that he had to move our big 5'x5' Snowglobe, back further in the yard. I came inside, as the cold and wind were getting to me - besides, I have plenty I need to do inside the house. The Santa in the helicopter, we bought from our neighbors, Kari and Stan, as they were maxed out on what they could fit into their yard and onto their roof. I had Dave put it right out front, where they could enjoy it too - its very cute! We have several families with little kids in the neighborhood, which walk the block to see the decorations. Its fun to have them be thrilled and excited to see it and tell me just exactly how many days are left before Christmas comes - only 16 days to go!

posted by Holly @ 10:14 AM