Reports of snow, road closures, emergency facilities for those stranded by ice, and poor weather are starting to litter the news. Here in Phoenix, the grass is greener and the weather pleasant. After suffering through our 110-degree summer days, which seems to have abruptly ended just days ago, we are lulled into climactic bliss. Images of parka-clad Minnesotans and snow-buried Buffalonians tease our sense of revenge-gloating as we stroll with bare feet and short-sleeved shirts down our green grass-lined boulevards punctuated by the occasional thorn-bearing cactus.