In some parts of the country, the leaves have already fallen off the trees.

Other places have already had their first snowstorms, and it's obvious that winter is on the way.

Here in Southern California, we made our concession to autumn by setting our clocks back an hour when we got up this morning. Then we "enjoyed" a November day with temperatures in the low 90s. Welcome to Los Angeles, where summer never really ends.

[caption id="attachment_74" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Stranger in a strange land"]<img class="size-medium wp-image-74" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/DSCN0041-300x224.jpg" alt="Stranger in a strange land" width="300" height="224" />[/caption]

I don't remember exactly when I took this picture. I think it was two years ago, maybe three, but there was something extremely odd about seeing Santa Claus walking down the beach just north of Malibu while some folks -- not pictured here -- surfing and swimming.

Some people like the fact that we probably have 275-300 days a year that would qualify at least as "warm," but my favorite season of the year was always autumn and that's a season that barely exists south of Morro Bay. Changing leaves? Not many. Those palm trees hold onto their leaves. Chilly nights? Maybe a few, but nothing like the wonderful late summer evenings I remember from back East that told you fall was coming.

I've lived here for nearly 20 years, and I can honestly say I'm about paradised out. I suppose it has a little more variety to it than San Diego, where it's 75 and sunny nearly every day, but I remember Colorado and its weather fondly. Hot summers, cold winters and springs and falls that sort of split the difference.

I remember covering a college baseball doubleheader in Greeley in late February and I'm pretty sure the temperature never got above 35 degrees. I remember waking up the day after Christmas 1987 having to drive all the way to Sioux Falls, S.D., and finding a foot of snow on the ground and more on the way.

Whoever said variety is the spice of life certainly never meant that to refer to the Southern California weather.

Will I miss the beaches? Probably, although I'm still hoping to learn to surf before we leave for new surroundings sometime next year.

Will I miss the mild winters? I don't know. Ask me when it's 25 degrees out and sleeting.

I know one thing. I won't miss 90-degree November days.

There's something very wrong about that.

Somebody call Al Gore