Let It Snow, Its Officially Xmas

It is hard to get into the holiday spirit when it is 80 degrees and blue skies here in the Mojave Desert of Southern California. But when we were blessed with almost two feet of the white powdery bliss I kept hearing the song, "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas." It was not an easy transition. Hundreds of people were stuck, stranded and cold. A few were injured as you might imagine, So Cal drivers do not mix well with ice and snow. I was not too happy about working in it either. I can not decide which is more stressful, driving in those conditions or shooting in them.
(Below)An AMR supervisor takes pictures of a ambulance that rolled over in the snow on El Mirage Road near Sheep Creek in El Mirage, no one was injured, as the High Desert experienced a day of heavy snow on Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008.
(Above)Motorists and truckers were stuck over night, many of whom stayed it a Red Cross Shelter at the San Bernardino County Fairgrounds in Victorville until roads could be cleared Thursday, Dec. 18, 2008. Eric Reed/photographer

One trick I have learned over the years is leave the cameras in the trunk. They need to stay cold and not change temperatures or they will fog, no bueno. Cameras (electronics) like the cold but not the wet and batteries do not like cold either, so I keep an extra in my pocket. The first venture that got my rear moving was an over-turned ambulance about 15 miles from my house, do the math at 20 mph on how long it took to get there. That was at least one major advantage of living in the High Desert... I was stuck where the rest of the LA basin media can not get to, so I shoot and send to the rest of the world from my side of 'the hill'. Well after a couple of days of driving in and shoveling snow off my driveway I realized Christmas is here and I am glad I don't live in the mid west.