Real Rain

It’s raining here on the Platinum Coast. A real, honest-to-goodness storm has parked itself over the coast and rain is pouring down, rushing through gutters and down storm drains, forming puddles in parking lots; the field at the junior high school is covered with seagulls, white on green.

Our local TV news station, KEYT, bless its soul, is reacting as if this is the Mother of All Storms, a once-in-a-century event; the station sends reporters in yellow slickers and waders to the waterfront, the banks of Mission Creek, and even to a street corner for a dramatic live report. “This is Senior Reporter John P. and I am standing at the intersection of Garden and Ortega Streets, where just behind me you can see a large volume of water rushing into this storm drain. This is real water, as you can see, and so far the storm drain is holding its own against the onslaught from Mother Nature.” 

We’re not accustomed to extreme weather out here on the coast and when we get anything out of the ordinary we tend to freak out and totally overreact. Some people, of course, will assume the drought is over, though this rainfall, wonderful as it is, is but a Band-Aid on a gaping wound. Only a flood of Biblical proportion could end the drought this time around.

In the meantime, I’m enjoying the sound of rain on the roof. The trees and shrubs are enjoying a long, refreshing drink.