It's hot here.

Putting up Christmas decorations in Florida feels decidedly ridiculous. Although I did have to scrape frost off my windshield last "winter," it's just so damned balmy here that inflatable snowmen and polar bears and penguins seem as out of place as snowballs in hell, which figures. ("Florida--Like Hell, Only Hotter" reads the popular t-shirt.)

I went up to the attic to fetch the boxes full of seasonal stuff, and came back down looking like Harry Belafonte after the banana harvest. I was dripping. Then we started putting up stocking holders, snowman sculptures, reindeers, and the decorative fireplace screen. I love this stuff, but even when it's cold here, there is nothing remotely wintry about the great state of F.L.A.

I'll be spending Christmas and New Year's in Los Angeles, though...where the weather figures to be about the same. But at least on a clear day in SoCal, you can actually see snow-covered mountains from Redondo Beach. The only thing you can see from any beach in Florida is water and sand. In case you've never been here, it's flat as a flounder.