The Boy

I know, I know.

You walked through bigger sheets of rain uphill both ways and barefoot without complaining.

We do complain. I complain.

Because that rain? That rain was bullshit.

We've been so saturated with warnings about the impending El Niño that it began to sound like urban legend. In this house it's pronounced "eLlllLlll NeeeEEeennnnYoOoOoooooooh" with a gutteral, vaguely south american cadence.

So when alarmist news reports indicated that it was finally coming, we were ready. ish. We were ready in that we knew it was going to rain, and we knew which roads would flood and which roofs would leak and which shoes would be unwise. Then we just went about our routine with that insider info on board, and then it started to rain.

It rained pretty hard. We were just back at work after a long and lovely Christmas break, the kids at work were eager to get outside to play, but:

It was exciting though, and kinda fun to watch the yard fill up with water from our dry vantage point

Then I stepped in a big puddle

...in my office

and it kept raining

it rained pretty hard

and I got this:

no shit

The next day seemed much less dramatic. It kept raining, but we had sandbags in place and the yard had drained fairly well and other than wading through mud and avoiding some low lying roads that remained closed, we were doing fine. So I was surprised when my son texted me this screen shot

Waaaaait, what? Tornado? Then my computer flashed to this:

So we all went....huh? Shelter in place? I made a note to ask about what that actually means we should do or not do, then carried on with the staying inside and the wishing we were all at home.

And of course, I got online to see what all the fuss was about.

Newport Ave in OB... Save Nico's!

also OB - from corner of Abbott and Santa Monica, looking at the lot where we park for Westy Beach Days

Crappy screenshot of the route we take to my boy's school

playground pool

These images were all over social media and news outlets, and the warnings to be careful on the roadways were followed by the obligatory self depricating comments about SoCal drivers in the rain. It's funny, it's true, we suck at it. This was like for realsies rain though, you guys. One person said to me: "I think even regular people would think this was a scary storm."  We just didn't know what would or would not hold, what would or would not flood. People were getting stuck in dangerous situations, needing rescue on the route I take from work to the gym! It was nuts.

Eventually, the rain let up. It continued in bursts and spurts for the next couple of days, days when my umbrella and raincoat were always in the places I was not. If this El Niño is going to be our norm for the winter, I am going to have to rethink my definition of essentials.

Wednesday afternoon

Thursday morning

Thursday afternoon

Friday morning

Aw, San Diego.