Winter in So Cal

I shouldn’t complain. The rest of the country is being besieged by a vicious winter while a weak drizzle puts Los Angeles on STORM WATCH and tops the 6 o’clock news. Heck, it doesn’t even have to be raining. Just the threat of moisture in our forecast is breaking news.

Southern Californians are big babies when it comes to Mother Nature’s machinations. A few drops on the window had us kids glued to the glass despite the teacher’s chiding; ‘you’ve all seen rain before’. That was true. We just didn’t see it very often. It was (and is) a rare thing. 
 

Every year I feel cheated out of winter. It’s mid-January now and I found myself sitting on the patio past the 4 o’clock hour under a warm sky marred by a lone wispy cloud. Birds and bees buzzed about confused. They bustled over flowers blooming prematurely from the abundant sunshine and garden hoses.
I stared northward, the flight path of most So Cal storms, over the watercolor worthy foothills and wished for a gathering of elephantine clouds to appear and let loose the El Nino we were promised this year.

 My lust for rain has its reasons. I don’t like drought and we are in the grips of an ugly one. Drought stresses me out. It makes the global warming thing feel more real than it did back when I was in elementary school bored by the cumbersome verbiage an insightful teacher describing the inevitable climate change. I only stared at the same mountains I was staring at now. Snow-less peaks then, snow-less now. 

Every year I that good hardy rains will come and fill our reservoirs past brimming. That the Fire Danger signs outside the Angeles National Forest will read LOW instead of EXTREME. 

I just want some winter, please. Give me some dark cloudy days. Make the ski resorts turn off their snow-makers. How about a little wind and hail for good measure?

 So it went and stormed this morning. After I got over my terror of the thunder that scared me and my cats awake, the rain came. All my outdoor ventures were suddenly thwarted. People forgot how to drive on the wet streets and I pouted when I realized I shouldn’t wear my flip-flops or my shorts today. It was way too cold.
 

I did anyway. I do like the rain.