Good morning and welcome to the desert portion of our midweek meal. Every winter I like to take a couple of weeks off at the end of December to regenerate and recharge my batteries in preparation for the new year. Actually, that’s not completely true. My in-laws have a condo on the golf course at the Palm Valley Country Club so I like to go down the Coachella Valley and live the life of a very active veal.

Palm Desert is nestled in the foothills of the Santa Rosa Mountains. For 8-9 months of the year it has near-perfect weather. In the summer months I believe hell is cooler. There are 350 sunny days a year, the average temperature is 73 degrees and it rains less than 3.5 inches. Yes, this is why before I go to sleep I say my prayers and thank the big guy upstairs for the rye bread, corn beef and chocolate rugulah at Sherman’s Deli, with two convenient locations in Palm Springs and Palm Desert.

Life can be quite strenuous in the desert at holiday time. We have to decide what movie we want to see that day, what restaurant we want to visit that evening and here comes the stressful part, what time should we make the reservation. I know a lot of you must be thinking, “Is he kidding, he thinks this is stressful.” Well, actually I am kidding. The stressful part is selecting the restaurant. We are very fortunate to be able to fly into Palm Springs, drive 20 minutes east and without carrying any tablets down from the mountaintop see the desert just the way Moses did.

As you can see from the photos, there is some color in the desert sky. Now here’s more of the rigors that come into play in the desert. To take sunrise shots here on the coast, I head down to the lighthouse, go down to the beach and head into that 52 degree water. In Palm Desert, I wake up, walk about 100 yards to the back nine fairway and vavoom, there’s my sunrise shot (this would be photos #1, 3 and 4).

Ah, the desert. Palm trees, luscious green fairways, beautiful lakes, cascading waterfalls and roadrunners not being chased by coyotes. Throw in some exotic clouds, fruit trees teeming with oranges, tangerines and grapefruit and mountains that change color throughout the day and that’s the lower desert. When the winds blow it reminds me of Hawaii without the ocean. And pineapple and papaya. And the chocolate covered macadamia nuts. No wonder Bob Hope loved this place.

Shots #5 and 6 are sunset shots taken on this most recent trip. The sunrises in late December were as weak as Coach Isiah Thomas’ excuses for his New York Knick’s team’s play but I did go to three movies (of which “Charley Wilson’s War’) was my favorite and watched another half dozen or so on DVD. I highly recommend the first half of “Balls of Fury” if you love movies about ping pong, but then again, who doesn’t.

So that’s our desert menu. There have been two tremendous sunrises the past two days but because of the ongoing writer’s strike I have not captured them the way I would like. Anyone who knows me knows that I HATE MISSING ANYTHING and I’ve definitely have not been on top of my game the last two days. I can only blame Rudy Giuliani, the Laker Girls and myself.

Shot number two is my favorite desert sunset-the whole sky turned completely blood crimson red. I hope you enjoyed this change of location as on Friday we will return to the stormy central coast. So enjoy the desert sky, the palm trees and the colors and maybe next time I’ll even throw in some sand.

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Sunrise Santa Cruz is back and we are pumped-up and emotionally ready for our 2008 photo blog kickoff. We were going to start the year off with a world series from lovely Palm Desert but after the most powerful storm in the past five years slammed into the west coast late Thursday night we’ve got to go with what’s caliente-that’s “hot” for you non-Hebrew speakers.

Nothing turns me on more than relentless rain and hurricane-force winds coming in from the Gulf of Alaska, especially when they’re strong enough to topple trees-like the eugenia in my backyard. That’s right, during the peak of the storm on Friday morning, as we were being pelted by rain and winds blowing from 40 to 60 mph, yours truly was out there battling the minerals and elements as two huge branches of a tree in my backyard snapped like a Ritz cracker and landed on my neighbor’s roof. What happened next is like the old joke, “What time is it when an elephant sits on your fence? Time to get a new fence.” That’s right, the fence collapsed (see photo #2) and now I get to find out if it’s true that “Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm is There.”

The ocean was spectacular throughout the day on Friday and Saturday as the storm system brought on huge waves that battered the coastline. Meanwhile, gusts of winds were toppling trees throughout the county. We did not have power all day on Friday so the last shot is my fireplace which came in quite handy in providing three necessities needed during a power outage-light, heat and most importantly, smores.

These storms, which walloped the coast along with shutting down highways, closing bridges and brought close to 10 feet of snow to the Sierras, got me to thinking. What were the worst US winter storms in history? Here are my fave five.

We’ll start with the Great Blizzard (or milkshake) of 1888 also called the Great White Hurricane, which occurred on March 11-14 in the eastern United States. Snowfall of 40 to 50 inches was recorded over New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut as sustained winds created drifts as much as 50 feet. Total deaths are thought to have exceded 400 as most of the cities on the eastern seaboard were shut down for days, if not weeks. Today it would be marketed as “Snow Gone Wild.”

Number two goes to The Storm of the Century, which hit on March 11-15, 1993 once again in the eastern United States. This massive cyclonic storm had arms that at one point reached from Canada to Central America. More than 300 were killed as Alabama and Georgia were hit by as much as 6 inches of snow. It snows about as often in these parts as my rabbi invites me over for baby back ribs. Areas further south received up to 16 inches of snow as tornadoes, thunderstorms and non-stop square dancing broke out all over the south. In the northeast, record low temperatures were accompanied by large amount of snow and a run on mittens and booties, as more than 3.5 feet fell in some areas.

Number three goes to the Great Appalachian Storm of 1950 that included heavy winds, rain and blizzard conditions that followed an extratropical cyclone as it moved through the eastern United States. Deaths totaled 353 and US insurance companies ended up paying more for damages than any other previous storms, including Led Zeppelin’s first US tour. Record cold was recorded in Florida (4 degrees), Georgia (3 degrees), Kentucky (-2 degrees) and Fort Lee, New Jersey (6 degrees of Kevin Bacon). .

Next up was the Great Lakes Storm of 1913, which was also known as the Freshwater Fury and the White Hurricane (not to be confused with the “White Shadow”). Also known as the Big Blow, this beauty hit the midwestern US and Ontario, Canada and may have been the worst winter storm on record (or as it would be classified now, CD). It killed more than 250, primarily from ships that were sunk. Five of the twelve ships downed by the storm were never found. Caused by the harmonic convergence of two storm fronts over the Great Lakes relatively warm waters, the storm generated 60-90 mph winds that lasted as long as 16 hours. Wind driven waves rose to 35 feet and whiteouts covered the region. With its counterclockwise winds, this was actually a hurricane.

Last but not least, our final winter blast was the Great Storm of 1975 that hit central and southeast US. The storm system resulted in snow in the midwest and 45 tornadoes in the southeast, killing a total of 70 people. Strangely, while the storm produced huge amounts of snow in the upper midwest, it also produced record high temperatures. As more than a foot of snow fell from Nebraska to Minnesota along with winds of 30-50 mph, record high temperatures were set in Chicago, Indianapolis and at a bagel shop in south Miami Beach. These conditions are not to be confused with your basic Mexican high and Canadian low.

So that’s it for our initial blast of 2008. After a day of driving rain and surging waves that battered the coast on Saturday, the sun made a brief appearance late in the day which created some spectacular cloud displays. We’ll take a look at that later in the month as next time we’ll journey to the desert for some sunrise/sunset vacation action. We also have lots of central coast sunrises and sunsets sitting on the tarmac-we’re just waiting for the go-ahead from air traffic control.

So I’m glad you’re on board for our 2008 journey because it is going to be wild. Just a reminder, I made it really easy like Sunday morning to leave a comment on the blog. Either way, enjoy the storm damage, the downed trees and the flames. And as our Governor Arnold “Terminator” Schwarzenegger once told me, “It’s good to be back.”