One of my on-line friends – if, as is often debated, our so-called “friends” truly are that – but whatever the case, one of my on-line acquaintances commented, on a videologue of mine the other day, “Oh, has your snow melted?”

I had to laugh, since he lives in outer-state New York near the Niagara river and falls, and I am rather certain his snow deep back east has not melted yet. But, nevertheless, I could honestly say that no, our snow in the mountains, fifty miles east of San Diego, has not all melted, not quite yet.

But then, we are lucky if “our snow” even lasts a week or two before it disappears again. It just so happens that a late winter storm only a week ago gave a fresh dusting to the Cuyamaca and Laguna mountains. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of eager coasties immediately drove up into the back-country mountains to slide down hillsides and get all wet.

On the coast, however, it is a different story. It has not snowed in the city of San Diego since five or six years ago, when one or two flakes fell – I was on Otay mesa at the time, in Tijuana, and was astonished to see what clearly were a few snowflakes – timid, tentative, and momentarily evanescent – but still snowflakes – drifting briefly in the cold afternoon air. Prior to that event in 2004 or 2005, it had not snowed along the coast since December 1967, when there were actual flurries that lasted almost half an hour, and the snow managed to stick to the ground for as long as ten or fifteen minutes.

Today, years later, in middle March of 2012, it is rather chilly, even in the sunlight. The weather has turned cool, after a couple days of warm desert winds. I think about actually putting on a sweater in broad daylight. And remember that yes, it is still winter in North America, even here, in San Diego – “America’s Finest City” – as well as in my beloved, adopted, home, next door, Tijuana – “Donde Empieza La Patria”.