It's raining and that's both a blessing and a curse. We need the rain. Despite what the Orange Menace has to say about it, California has been in the throes of a HUGE drought for the last several years. I know it will take several years of this type of weather to make things right again, but we need the rain. When I wake up and hear rain on the roof, I think "ah, it's raining, then IMMEDIATELY default to "aw shit! it's RAINING!" Rain for me changes my day, especially a hard or prolonged rain. I am in charge of the maintenance or seventy-two ( yeas all of them are mine) branch libraries. My only comfort is I currently have NO responsibility for the Central Library. Whew!
When it rains, I think about people who live out in the elements and hope they find a place that is safe and dry. There are so many homeless people out here in Los Angeles and my neighborhood had become overrun with encampments. It's both sad and scary. Some people are on the streets by choice- there was a guy who used to panhandle in front of my building when I worked on Spring St. The local restaurant offered him a job and he turned them down, said he could make better "wages" panhandling. The owner was shocked and saddened. It happens. My Union does a meal service at one of the shelters in downtown every month and quarterly here in the Valley. Both have programs to help people get back on their feet. It's sad when you see the same residents, but Some of them look much stronger than when we first encountered them, so there is progress there. With the new administration, I fear the economy for the 99% is just going to get worse. I have to hold onto hope for all of us.
I'd better get moving. Rain and construction on the 210 promises a hellish commute, although I don't think they work in the rain. Still the lanes end abruptly and people don't take any extra care when the wet stuff falls from the sky.
It's cold up here in the foothills. I hope it doesn't snow!
I, too, have mixed rain feelings - oh, we so need it! But driving in SoCal int he rain is hellish - people always act as if they had no idea what this wet stuff is. AND, as a homeowner, I watching my rainbarrells overflow even more - since I cannot water just now (I mean, water what!) and then the cat gets out int he night, comes bac in and jumps on the bed - but seems to affect an aversion to my toweling him off.................even though he has woken me with his pathetic howling. Still, I woould like to see the back of the drought broken.
ReplyDeleteRe. the homeless, another reason I switched parish affiliations a few years ago, is their pretentious p.s.-ness - we don't call them "homeless," Robyn - they are "the unhoused." I said to someone, "Yeah, that must make them feel better out in the cold and the wet at night!"
Tom