OMG! Snow In Boston!

Ahhhh…here is a news flash! It is snowing in the North East!

O.K., it is Winter, and snow in the North East is not usually news, but it apparently is a slow news day in the North East.

Now, I am not a big fan of snow, except on slopes serviced by ski lifts, but as I recall from my dating days when I had time off from the Naval Academy and went to my now wife’s home near Cape Cod, it snowed in the Winter. Sometimes it snowed a LOT!

What I don’t recall is all the angst. My wife’s father went out in it every day to check on the condition of the vacation homes he maintained during the Winter – they were the homes his custom home construction crews built during the Summer.

(I also remember he paid his people during the Winter by mortgaging his home, then he repaid the mortgage during the Summer.)

I find it interesting that it looks like Big Bear is getting about the same amount of snow at about the same time. Jean and I used to ski Big Bear when we could not get to Utah – Big Bear is a lot like sex – just as there is no such thing as bad sex, there is no such thing as bad ski slopes, but Big Bear is about as bad as it gets, Oh, the slopes are fine, but California “snow” – locally called “California Crud” for a reason, is pretty bad. It is, however, better than nothing, and it is 90 minutes away!

My favorite is Brian Head, Utah…a small ski area where I once saw four fresh tracks in fresh powder on one run – and all four were MINE! It is a quiet, primarily Mormon area filled with kind people who, when a Snowboarder knocks you down, he helps you up and apologizes! No night life there, just ski until you drop, and there is nothing left for nightlife. If you want nightlife, ski Whistler/Blackcomb in British Columbia – we did for two weeks. Absolute heaven, but tough sledding fo California ski buffs – the Canadian slopes are TOUGH!

But, I digress…two feet of snow, the same stuff that paralyzes Boston, is called a “Good ski day” in Big Bear, and I see shots of people crowding the slopes of Big Bear in spite of the mass killer on the loose.

Hey, you can’t have a murderer ruin fresh snow on the slopes!

I saw a TV interview of the Sheriff discussing the murderer on the mountain, and he was asked if there was any panic? He said, “These are hardy people, and most of them are armed.” Yep! And the activity in the town and on the slopes was going on as normal – unlike Boston, where the Governor has decreed all traffic off the streets by 5 pm.

I did note the TV reporter from Connecticut remarking on the coming snowfall and the concerns of the Connecticut residents, said she was from Winnipeg and she didn’t know what all the fuss was about.

Me either!

(Slow news day!)

Homeless! (Again!)

There was a letter to the VoiceofSan Diego claiming that the people have become desensitized to the homeless problem, to which I replied:

Desensitized? Hardly. There is more printer ink and pixels applied to the problem each Winter than any other single subject.

My problem, so often expressed as to be seen as a common scold, is that the problem can be solved easily by 8 am tomorrow.

This past week I attended a Memorial Service at a Mega church in Carlsbad along wit HUNDREDS of fellow attendees. We entered the facility past an unused kitchen, flanked by multiple bathroom facilities, also unused, into a  heated and air conditioned facility so large that it housed a full court  basketball facility whose baskets folded into the enormous ceiling.

That facility, multiplied by double and possibly triple digit numbers, dot San Diego County — and they all sit unused tonight as I write.

Their leader, a man called Jesus, ordered his followers to  help the helpless, the poor and the downtrodden, but the Churches built to worship his message sit empty while the homeless shiver.

The congregations of these churches, congregations that listen to his message every week, include Doctors, nurses, Psychiatrists,  Social Workers, employers, beauticians, clothiers, etc. — exactly the people needed to minister to those in the homeless populations.

This is a solvable problem. Tonight. If 100 ministers would simply do that which their leader told them to do.

Will this be discussed at the VOSD discussion on homelessness? Of course not. No one wants to challenge the orthodoxy of religion by pointing out this obvious hypocrisy.

Heat, air conditioning, bathrooms, space, food preparation facilities, and professional help, all without a dime of taxpayer money. All sitting empty tonight, every night.

‘What would Jesus do?”

“Green Europe” ????????

The Washington Post reports today that Europe has INCREASED its importation of dirty coal by 26% because it lacks either sufficient natural gas or the political will to retain their current nuclear electrical capability.

I suppose we should be happy that the US produces enough natural gas to export it — and, the dirty coal we don’t burn we can make money shipping it to Europe.

Europe may preach Green, but they are in the second dip of a recession and they have decided not to reduce their standard of living to the cave level.

Just remember, the homeless have the smallest carbon footprint.