This is the place?

Observe the depth of my idiocy. Having survived and enjoyed a wonderful week with the worlds' two most wonderful children in the balmy sunshine of "America's Finest City," I choose for my own personal holiday to drive north into a black ice-ridden, frostbite-risking, extremity-freezing, traffic accident-prone ice bucket called Salt Lake City. As a native Southern California beach boy, I agree with Dante Alighieri that the lower in hell one goes, the colder one gets. Yes, that's my car night before last, poor thing, first time it was ever exposed to snow. At least I put new tires on it.

So why would I volunteer to leave paradise for this? Only one thing could pry me away from the beach and put me into the freezer: the prospect of being with friends I love. You all know who you are. The warmth that's there more than makes up for the cold outside. In that regard I am blessed far beyond what I deserve. Blogging, chat and phonecalls are great of course and irreplaceable, but there's nothing like seeing the smile and patting the back. So this will be a "recharge the batteries" trip. And assuming I don't slide off some slick road and hurt or kill myself in the process, I will count myself very very lucky indeed to have been here.