A unique summer in Los Angeles energizes me. Every summer until 1998 was the same, ever full of sun, dry heat and lazy days that dominate the landscape of southern california. This year, trucks drop lemons on the freeway outside my house. A sweet aroma eminates as they are crushed by the trucks and cars that slow down as they pass, carefully squeezing the juice into the air.  Lightning showers extend from LAX to riverside on my way home from the airport. Purple, yellow, blue and white flashes come and go in the absence of thunder. The crackling strings of light remind me of the dazzling lightning I used to draw on my folders in school, when I used to wear maui&sons shorts and T-shirts. Lighting showers often hover over the La Verne horizon, but never stretched all the way to the coast like tonight. When I reach my home in San Dimas, I faintly hear rumblings of thunder. My dog was not scared, so the thunder was far from me. The heat continued into the night, occasional rain droplets fell within the lightning storm. In the middle of the storm, I reveled in nature`s awesome display of anger and change.  The lightning lit a blaze that burned for hours in Riverside. Los Angeles was humid today. After 25 years of dry heat, I felt as though I was in the tropical Philippines or on the east coast of Florida again. I spend most of my days in Eastern San Gabriel Valley. Little wonder that my area has peculiar weather. A few years ago when I was an undergrad at UCLA, the San Dimas post office was covered by a thin sheet of snow. The pictures still hang in the post office, and that is the only reason I believe the stories. Today a tornado watch centers in Pomona headed west towards Whittier and Montebello. I wonder if it will swing north by my home. The world seems upside down this year. The stormy events of the last days are the culmination of a summer filled with rainy days like never before. Of course the weather forecasters incorrectly predicted flooding this summer, but we definitely had rain, and a generally colder, murky summer. El nino, the name given to the weather this year, brought us a climate never seen by these eyes before.  In grade school, more than 10 years ago, winds of change came to town. The giant palm trees in the church were blown down. All kinds of debris were blown past the doors to my classroom, and past us while we drove on the street. That is why I studied tornados for my 8th grade science project and made one with a glass box, and some heated water vapor. My air conditioner produces the same wild moving vapor on these stormy days if I leave my window open. I assume the heat of the air conditioner or the engine is creating vapor which blows through my a/c. At first I feared that smoke was coming from the engine, but there was no smell for this visible air. After having a cylinder crack in my old sky blue `83 Accord in 1993, I was not taking any chances with this car. The last time I saw smoke in a car, it was flowing like a giant grey wall behind me, and out of the gaps in the front hood. I was so embarassed to be put-putting my pathetic car through downtown Berkeley looking for a place to park or a gas station to bury my dying car. So I immediately slowed, clicked of the a/c and felt better when the vapor subsided. Speaking of burning cars, I have to thank my guardian angel for showing my friend Matt Yeazel the sparks coming from his hood when I was in high school. I was sleeping on my way home from a long debate tournament. I hear "wake up Ron, wake up, the car is burning."  We are all freaking out as we are actually on the offramp to our houses only a few miles from that spot. We pulled over, and the four of us jump out of the car. Matt frantically curses and horridly watches his car start to burn from the front end near the windshield. The flames grew and engulfed the whole front hood and torched the dashboard and windshield. There were no explosions that I remember, but there were a lot of sparks and flames. I don`t remember if I was laughing then. But every time after that I think of it I bust up. A few months later, Matt backed into a station wagon while I was in his mom`s minivan. He doesn`t like to give me rides anymore, he likens me to the black plague when I am a passenger in his car. This year, a couple of people died in a way I never imagined would happen to anyone. A giant tree in Claremont was uprooted during a windy, rainy day and collapsed on their car while they were stopped at the intersection.  That is an awful way to perish. I hope they died quickly, I wonder what they must have been thinking as or after it happened. Gruesomely, I cannot help but giggle a little, because it just seems so absurd. It forces me to stay alert while driving through sleepy Claremont on my way to the university. The Angels are in the thick of things for the playoffs in September. They actually have a legitimate chance of competing this year after beating some of the top teams in the AL. I have been an angel fan for a long time, because anaheim stadium is closer than dodger stadium. Then there is Mcgwire, my Damien high school alumni,  and Sosa who are crushing balls out of major league parks. This is definitely a special summer. Not to mention me getting into graduate school a few months before summer began. Many odd, and good things have happened this year. This is definitely not an ordinary day. What lies ahead?     Flash Forward to the spring of 99, or shall we say the late winter. Mark and Sammy are still crushing balls in Florida and Arizona before the season starts. The NBA has had the first strike ever, timely since the most dominant player ever decides to leave. He is gone so the league reverently shuts its doors for a few months to honor him. None of the owners want to pay to open the buildings since their current rosters won`t fill the stadiums like the old Bulls used to, or get the ratings that a dynasty can bring to television.   Speaking of that late winter, talk about freaky weather. It is snowing west of Mount Baldy. Unheard of, people skiing in Snow Summit in April. I have heard of May showers, but not snow in southern Cali in the springtime. Easter snow, how refreshing. Arrowhead Lake celebrates Easter with snowball fights. Guess hell is freezing over as we head into the millenium.   The worst part about this amazing spring is that I am spending it alone. I have no love of my life to get freaky with this spring as we head into Y2k, armaggeddon, apocalypse or the best damn new year`s party ever. I wish I had a cuddly lady to hang out with for what may be the last mating season ever   Life will go on, but it would be tremendous to have a baby born on the millenium. Guess I am just in a baby-makin mood. Play me a little Barry White please.   Unique weather seems to bring out all the special things in life. I will remember the rain storms, the spring snow, the tornadoes, snow in San Gabriel Valley. All the freaks of nature that hit my hometown in East San Gabriel Valley. Home of the archangel Gabriel watching over us between the Big Bear Mountains and the smoggy downtown 10 freeway. This is probably the first spring I can remember it being colder in Los Angeles than in New York because of the cold fronts and warm fronts and wind currents blowing as they are. The end of the century is going out in style. A blaze of glory, snow, and rain pours down.   I assume this summer may be the hottest ever. I would not be surprised if the continents shift a couple of inches. A cleansing of the earth before time starts anew. Mother Earth reborn, preparing and watching as governments decide on whether or not they will bring another land war to bloody the fields of Yugoslavia in the name of freedom, land acquisition, democracy, technological military prowess(we didn`t build the stealth bombers for nothing ) and financial gain.   Earth is ready to be reborn and start a new millenium. Will we build a new heaven on earth? Our best and brightest singers are preaching of angels and prayer, spirituality and love. Or will we destroy it before the new millenium ever starts? It is in our hands.