Okay, I’ll grant you it’s sunny 300 days a year here in Southern California, but when it rains for real, they don’t fuck around.
It was raining so hard when I was driving home that I couldn’t see more than about 100 feet in front of me for large chunks of my drive. It took me twice as long as normal to get home.
That, plus the pavement and drainage systems here were built for an area that’s sunny 300 days a year. You’re either flooded or hydroplaning all over the place, and that gets old on a 20-mile commute.
But it’s all worth it, just to see the way that people here just lose their shit whenever precipitation arrives.
The “StormWatch 2004!” team was out in full force on all the local networks, which is highly entertaining to watch:
REPORTER 1: Yes Jim, I’m standing in a gigantic puddle of water here in Valley Village, holding onto an electrified cord attached to this microphone! I’m standing knee-deep in water and trying not to get electrocuted!”
ANCHOR: Thanks Tom, now we’re going to Juan Garcia, out in the San Bernadino mountains with an update on the snowfall. Juan?
REPORTER 2: Gracias Jim, here in the mountains the snow is really starting to come down. I’ve been standing out here for hours now and I can’t feel my legs!
Now looking at our oversized ruler, we can see that two inches of snow have fallen in the last ten minutes, and at this rate, I will be buried up to my neck by the 11 O’clock news.
ANCHOR: Thanks Juan, and folks, tune in at 11 to see an update from Juan’s floating head.
The first winter I spent in SB my parents called me to ask how bad the storm was. All the way in Ohio they’d heard about the horrible winter storms in SB. Yeah, it was raining, but that sure as hell wasn’t what I’d consider a storm! But I agree that the roads are definitely not designed for rain!
Hee. Except yesterday, it seriously felt like I was driving through a carwash, it was coming down so hard. On the plus side: I can get away with not going to the carwash for another month!