And, well into the New Year

Where I live now, it's raining. We've had more snow than we have had in the past 8 years. The creeks are high, the hills are green and at this point in mid-February the trees are starting to bud.

Where I used to live, in L.A., it is also raining. And raining. And raining. The Los Angeles river may actually have some water in it - that's a rarity. If any creeks are high, the people who live at their edges are frantically stacking sandbags. You see, rain - in a desert - usually leads to something dramatic. Like flash flooding. Normally, that's because the soil/sand/dirt is packed so tight the water can't penetrate quickly and so it runs off. In L.A., the concrete and asphalt that covers what used to be soil/sand/dirt is packed way tighter than the earth could ever be. What's more, there are houses everywhere, so the water that would just naturally run to the sea is forced to take with it whatever isn't on poles, or anchored down. People for some reason, don't seem to understand the nature of things down there. They keep building on the sandy hills of Malibu, that every year are dowsed ever seaward. They tier more and more homes on water-logged man-made hills in the inland empire which despite the large black plastic sheeting landscape decor, tumble every year on top of one another.

The saddest calamity of all are the poor humans themselves which find running water so unique they insist on a close-up view of it as it rampages through the concrete drainage aquaducts. Inevitably, each year they step too close, bend over too far and end up plummeting down the way, trying to keep their head above water long enough for some under-paid, over-worked water rescue team to save their logic-impaired life.

Where I live now, the water all runs down hill, through natural creekbeds and rivers to the Delta where nobody tries to stop it. Nobody builds so close to the water that their homes and lifestyles are threatened by normal or even heavy rainfall. And I have NEVER heard of some idiot getting so close to the edge of a raging river that they lost their life to their stupidity. I think we grow our genes smarter in the hills.

I hope nobody dies this year from flooding or mudslides in Los Angeles.