It pours

Seems it never rains in Southern California
Seems I've often heard that kind of talk before
It never rains in California
But girl, don't they warn ya
It pours, man it pours*

Ah, how I love Southern California in the rain. Water falls from the sky and suddenly: HYSTERIA! The roads are flooded, every local news channel is on Storm Watch and the grocery store shelves are empty of staples like milk, bread, eggs, and (oddly) tofu.

People, it's water. WATER. You carry it around by the designer bucketful, is it really so scary when it's loose? You are not going to be trapped in your home for days on end. No one is going to drown crossing the street. The pilates studios, Whole Foods markets, and tanning salons will all remain open.

You are, however, going to kill yourself and probably several other people if you don't slow the hell down on the freeway. It took me almost two hours to get to work yesterday morning because almost every major southbound freeway interchange was closed due to accidents and/or flooding. The answer to flooded roadways and limited visibility is not to drive as fast as possible in a vain attempt to dodge the drops of freakish Sky Water; the answer is to turn on your headlights, turn off your cell phone, and drive cautiously.

And just as a reminder, driving an SUV does not mean that you can go 70mph on a flooded freeway in the rain. If you throw up two four foot walls of water when you drive through a puddle, you're driving far too fast.

*I hope that Keith will forgive me for stealing the chorus of a song for my own purposes when the song in question isn't really about weather at all. *g*

Comments

[Keith]

You have been warned... this is your first violation, so I'll let you off easy this time. Next time, the smiting!