Rain, rain, go away...
Why is it that no matter how much we need rain in So Cal, we only get it in copious amounts. Wouldn't it be better spread among many weeks?
I got a phone call this morning just to let me know that all schools were NOT CANCELLED due to the weather. This would be unthinkable in the northeast. A call to say school is on?
Perhaps it is complacency, but on the contrary, I think that the inclement weather here is not just a mere annoyance to lazy, pampered people, but rather a real disruption to a certain way of life that is constructed upon the expectation of good weather.
Example, while there are (a growing number, yet) relatively few people in, say, New Hampshire that regularly walk or bike to work, bad weather, while inconvenient for scraping and shoveling, doesn't generally impede one's expected daily routine. In major cities, of course, people take public transit, but much of that is covered, and protected so that people are not standing in the pouring rain. Here, not so.
The measly little thunderclouds depositing an unending rush of water upon our heads is a major disruption to life. Schools are designed differently, with outdoor hallways instead of indoor ones (presumably to save on heating/cooling and lighting). Kids who are used to moving about freely must huddle inside, with the rising stink of wet Uggs for their company.
Likewise, I have been unable to ride my bike to work for practical purposes (not wanting to look like a soaked cat while teaching), but also because there are portions of the bike paths that are simply washed out. Inconvenient, yes. Dangerous, also. Fortunately for me, and life being what it is, I have also been required to drive my daughter to school all this week due to an illness in my carpool, so I've actually been saving energy by doing this and simply driving to campus, and then home, in one loop, instead of a back track.
But my point, if ever there was one, is simply that rather than lamenting our weakness or our lack of preparedness here in SoCal, we should try to enjoy the nastiness of the weather, forgive ourselves from diverging from our usual earth-friendly transportation modes (if we actually employ them) and curl up in bed, with a good book (or exams to grade?)and listen to the music of the rain outside our windows.
I got a phone call this morning just to let me know that all schools were NOT CANCELLED due to the weather. This would be unthinkable in the northeast. A call to say school is on?
Perhaps it is complacency, but on the contrary, I think that the inclement weather here is not just a mere annoyance to lazy, pampered people, but rather a real disruption to a certain way of life that is constructed upon the expectation of good weather.
Example, while there are (a growing number, yet) relatively few people in, say, New Hampshire that regularly walk or bike to work, bad weather, while inconvenient for scraping and shoveling, doesn't generally impede one's expected daily routine. In major cities, of course, people take public transit, but much of that is covered, and protected so that people are not standing in the pouring rain. Here, not so.
The measly little thunderclouds depositing an unending rush of water upon our heads is a major disruption to life. Schools are designed differently, with outdoor hallways instead of indoor ones (presumably to save on heating/cooling and lighting). Kids who are used to moving about freely must huddle inside, with the rising stink of wet Uggs for their company.
Likewise, I have been unable to ride my bike to work for practical purposes (not wanting to look like a soaked cat while teaching), but also because there are portions of the bike paths that are simply washed out. Inconvenient, yes. Dangerous, also. Fortunately for me, and life being what it is, I have also been required to drive my daughter to school all this week due to an illness in my carpool, so I've actually been saving energy by doing this and simply driving to campus, and then home, in one loop, instead of a back track.
But my point, if ever there was one, is simply that rather than lamenting our weakness or our lack of preparedness here in SoCal, we should try to enjoy the nastiness of the weather, forgive ourselves from diverging from our usual earth-friendly transportation modes (if we actually employ them) and curl up in bed, with a good book (or exams to grade?)and listen to the music of the rain outside our windows.
posted by ilana at 11:18 a.m.
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