OK, so I'm NOT really dreaming of a White Christmas...

We are SO getting down to crunch time! The next 3 days I have 2 trips to San Diego and 1 to LA. This was the scene on my way over the pass into San Diego today. Seriously?!

It's been raining here. (Trivia: We get about 3 days of rain a year in the Valley...drizzle, really...on a wet year.) It drizzled on the day after the graduation when I was hosting the President of the University and his wife, the Dean, the MEP Director and the Regional Director for Golf. They came all this way from Indiana to take advantage of the gorgeous California desert in December (oh yeah...and to hand out diplomas to Sailors). Not so much, though. Then, on the day of their departure...it poured buckets! I told them to get the heck out of my state and take their stupid weather with them...(hehe...I thought about it, anyway).

Anyhoo, I am SO crazed with my to do list, that I didn't even equate...rain in the Valley+cold=snow in the mountains. The heater in my van doesn't work...and I didn't bring a coat...and I picked my shoes not for their warmth, but for the way they matched my cute outfit (and Lisa's shoes!).

I would have had to go to San Diego, anyway (I had the final health certificate appt. for our animals, had to finally pick up our military passports, and had a foot appt.) but I just wish I would have thought it through. I could have worn warmer socks, at least...and a couple of jackets. Maybe stopped at Starbucks for my favorite Salted Carmel Signature Hot Cocoa. Instead, I was panic-stricken as I climbed in altitude and this is what I saw...

Without heat, the snow was caking to my windshield wipers and they didn't work worth a darn...(Are you guys wondering what I was doing snapping pictures while I was fish-tailing, trying to stay in this truck's wake? Ask Cliff...I never let my personal safety get in the way of a good photo...actually, now that I think about it, I feel another Flashback Friday theme coming on!)

At one point, I did a mental inventory for supplies, in case we'd get to a point where the pass was closed....or I fish-tailed off a cliff where there was no cell phone reception and it took them days to find me after the pouring snow covered my skidmarks. I had a thin, small blanket. No water...but I did have a bottle of diet coke, an ounce of pretzels, and if things got REALLY bad....a dog AND a cat!


Needless to say, we made it home intact, but it was a wild ride. I went through a couple of the stages of hypothermia, at least. The pass was closed briefly, but by the time I was done with my errands, I was able to follow a snowplow back through.

Just another chapter in the saga...but regardless of how hairy it gets here, it ends with me riding a freaking elephant through the jungles of Thailand (the metaphor for my Asian adventure...it's a long story).