Winter came roaring in early this morning (Tuesday). Horizontal rain. Winds up to 58 mph at the airport. Snow in the mountains. Boreal expects to open at least one lift by this weekend. Mud slides in the areas already devastated by fire. Parts of Highway 50 closed because of mudslides. Almost an inch of rain in Sacramento. About 1-1/4 inch in Stockton, just down the road. Wow!

I had a doctor's appointment this morning, and debated whether to go by freeway or surface street. My doctor's office is about 20 miles away, and I can get there pretty fast by surface street, but I elected the freeway because I thought that some low parts of the surface street might be flooded. They weren't, as it turned out.

Maniacs on the freeway. I was driving in the far right lane at 50 mph. I set my cruise control because my foot gets a little heavy sometimes, and I didn't want to take any chance on hydroplane speed. Too many others on the road apparently don't care, think it can't happen to them, or simply don't know. I'm really surprised that a couple cars didn't go flying off the freeway when they hit the curves. Now, admittedly the curves aren't all that sharp, but at excessive speed in high wind and heavy rain, hydroplaning can mean disaster on even a gentle curve.

No such accidents were reported on the evening news, but there were cars crushed by falling trees or heavy limbs. Happens every year. So far, no trees have smashed into homes, but it'll happen. Power lines knocked down by falling tree limbs. Earlier about 30,000 homes, it was reported, were without power, but most of them have been rescued by now.

The storm covered pretty much all the Pacific Coast, and there's more churning out there on the Ocean, just waiting to slam into us. It was a doozy! Kind of invigorating, though. As long as the snow stays up there.

Shalom