It Never Rains in Southern California...

...it snows!

There was snow in Malibu last night! And in the Santa Monica mountains and in Santa Clarita and even in Westwood, which is where UCLA is. Alas, none in the deserts, although it does get really frickin’ cold out here in the winter. We just don’t have any moisture in the air so we don’t get any white stuff falling from the sky.

The citrus industry is really taking it hard, though, and that means no famous California fruit, like oranges and avocadoes and strawberries and lemons. The ones that are left are gonna cost a lot of money.

“I just bought some oranges yesterday,” Lucie says to me after I tell her this. “Do you think I should buy some more?”

“Sure,” I say. “Just don’t eat them. They’ll probably be collectors’ items soon.”

“Really?” She sort of looks at me funny, like she’s possibly taking me serious so I continue.

“Maybe you should buy a whole bunch and hoard them. So when people start getting scurvy from not having enough vitamin C, you can sell your oranges to them for fifty bucks apiece and make a boatload of cash.”

Lucie grabs the oranges from the counter and holds them tightly to her chest. “Fifty each?” I can see the little pinwheels of her brain trying to spin as she attempts to calculate this vast sum.

I shrug. “Easily. I’ll bet it won’t take longer than, oh, I don’t know, four months before people get desperate.”

“Four months…sure.” My sister cradles the fruit, admiring their orange-y goodness. Suddenly, she scowls. “Hey, wait a minute,” she says. “In four months, they’ll be all rotted.”

I laugh and shake my head. “Duh, Lucie.”

For a second I think she’s going to get really mad at me for making fun of her but she smiles and laughs at herself.

“Maybe I’ll just make juice out of them,” she says.

It’s different when you have fun with people all alone. They don’t get nearly as mad as when you do it in front of others.