Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays [was: Happy Holidays]

[Bill Vermillion]

Putting quill to paper and scribbling furiously on Fri, Dec 24 10:54  
Bill Campbell missed achieving immortality when he said: 

> On Fri, Dec 24, 2004, Bill Vermillion wrote:
> >On Fri, Dec 24 09:03 , Steve Wiltsie, showing utter disregard for 
> ....
> >> At least you weren't in some of the hundreds of cars and trucks
> >> that got stranded on the interstates and secondary roads in
> >> Indiana and northern Kentucky. It took up to 24 hours to get
> >> all of the people out of their vehicles and into a shelter.

> >That's why I live in FL.   About every three years the snow in the
> >front yard would be over 5 feet deep, most years it was three.

> In many parts of Florida your weather results in large demand for
> flat house paint.

And it's so much easier to pain the houses when they are flat. You
don't need a ladder.

> I was racing at West Palm Beach back in February of '78 or
> so when a major snow and ice storm hit the east coast. I had
> had to drag my race car trailer out of three feet of snow in
> Maryland to make the trip down. When I called my mother to
> say we were on our way back on Sunday, she suggested that I
> stay with a friend in Titusville for a few days as things were
> much deeper. On Thursday we drove back, and things were very
> ``interesting'' in Georgia and South Carolina as there were
> cars and trucks in positions you wouldn't believe around I-95.
> They just don't know how to deal with snow and ice in that part
> of the world.

And the last snow I remember in Orlando was in about 1977.  I had
enough to make a snowball from that on the roof of my car - rag top
so the snow didn't melt immdiately.  That was the same year that it
snowed in the Bahamas - for the first time ever.

> ...
> >Of course homes being blown down happened to many here in Fl this
> >year when it was just rain and not snow. You can't hide from the
> >weather - at least here - as North America has the worst weather
> >conditions in the world because of the flow of currents in the
> >Atlantic.

> I find the weather here in the Pacific Northwest the best I've
> seen in the U.S. (I like seasons so don't say San Diega :-).

Living West of the Cascades does help a lot.  On the East side
of the Cascades and before the Bitterroot Range the Pacific
Northwest isn't quite that mild.

> The summers aren't sweltering and humid, and the winters
> generally mild with what are considered major snow storms every
> five years or so (major here is from one to four inches :-).

That's only part of the PNW.  I frostbite an ear one night when the
temperature dropped dramatically - and there was no warning it was
going to go that low.  We had walked from the SU to a restaurant,
and then wondered how we would get back to the dorm - about 6
blocks away.  The local police provided us with taxi service that
night.  It turned out it was 36 below and our high the next
day was 19 below.  Walking to class was not pleasant but at least
by that time we could bundle up.

> I'll take a major earthquake every fifty years or so rather
> than major hurricanes in Florida or snow and ice storms
> elsewhere. At least earthquake damage around here is generally
> localized (the 1964 Anchorage quake was a major exception).

If you don't live on the coast in FL they aren't as devastating if
you live in solid construction. I lost a few shingles with the 3rd
one we had on 6 weeks, but the frame house - 80 years old made of
cypress - didn't even seem to mind at all.

At least you get a warning when a 'cane is coming.  With quakes
you don't get much warning.

Bill

> Bill
> --
> INTERNET:   bill at Celestial.COM  Bill Campbell; Celestial Systems, Inc.
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> every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God;
> because, if there is one, he must more approve of the homage of 
> reason, than that of blindfolded fear.''  --Thomas Jefferson
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-- 
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com