Broken California

Well, last fall the weather forecasters did say this would be an "El Nino" year.

Thus we did expect heavier rain than usual in the November - to - March rainy season, as happened back in 1996 (at least I think it was 1996) when a large portion of the county close to the San Joaquin River became a lake inspite of the levees. However, after that fateful drenching year, April was still the end of the rain season and we had California weather to cheer us up after the water worries. Not so this year. The Bay Area is expecting lows in the 30's before dawn and stable warm weather is nowhere in sight for us here in the Valley. This is nuts.

Lillian could live out her childhood and most of her adolescence and not see weather like she's experiencing; the fun dancing in the rain and flowing gutters in May is an extremely rare event here. She might not ever remember it. How much does one remember from being three years old? How often does California turn into Oregon?

Today (though today will seem like tomorrow after I'm done sleeping again) is Derby Day. Back East, the newspapers would have been full of speculation about the favorites and the long shots; the names Lukas, Baffert, and Zito would have been on every sports page. Here, the Kentucky Derby warranted a couple lame paragraphs in an overview on page two of the sports section yesterday. So annoying. Perhaps if one of the horses running carried a political message branded or painted onto his thoroughbred ass the West Coast would sit up and notice. I spent the afternoon jonesing on clips from the Derby site (http://www.kentuckyderby.com/2005/). Bellamy Road is the horse to beat, it seems, but Afleet Alex has shown some heavy duty running and may have the staying power to take the Belmont Stakes.

For sure I won't be wearing a white gauze outfit when I watch the Derby this year. I might, however, need to dig out a sweater.