Sunny California

There is a saying attributed to Mark Twain, “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.”

This saying is from the 19th century when weather forecasts were based on old wives tales like, the color a of  caterpillar, if the cow’s coat was thicker than usual or old sailor expressions such as “Red night sailor’s delight, red morning sailor’s warning.”

Many people depended on the Farmer’s Almanac to schedule when to plant and harvest. Never mind that the publication was produced months before the predicted weather is going to occur. Country folk lived and, yes, died by it. Hard to predict when those tornadoes were going to pop up. Just check out The Wizard of Oz.

Many of us are old enough to remember when the weather forecast on the nightly news was at best, a guessing game. Being from Chicago, my favorite part of  watching the weather on the TV was when P.J. Hoff used to draw cartoons all over his weather map. Hoff was one of the inspirations that led to me becoming an illustrator. I also predict the weather about as well as P.J. did, I have no clue. When I was an art major in college, meteorology classes were not required. Wonder why? 

When I was a boy, I lived to play baseball during the summer. There were so many days that I thought we would get a game in on Cortesy’s lot only to be left standing in a downpour that was not suppose to happen. Probably was for the best and it helped keep my batting average above 200.

Today is a different story. Science and technology has stepped up and made weather forecasting a more precise undertaking. With satellite imaging, Doppler radar, planes flying into hurricanes, and meteorologists chasing tornadoes all over the great plains, we have a better idea of what to wear to work tomorrow morning. I’m happy to help predict future weather. I’ll call in and let them know when my knees are aching. That always means a storm is coming.

You are probably wondering why I’m talking about the weather. I now live in California and for the first time in years, we actually experienced weather this winter. I could hear that gasp, but it is true. It has rained, snowed, sleeted, hailed, and gotten relatively cold. I did say relatively. Remember, I grew up in Chicago where we experienced real cold. Of course not as cold as northern Minnesota, where people would winter in Chicago because they thought it balmy, but it could get really frosty in ChiTown. I remember days when my car looked more like an ice cube than a means of transportation. I would spend an hour trying to break through the ice to get inside so I could start warming up the engine…if it turned over.

It was cold enough here in California that we had snow falling from the most northern part of the state to the far southern portion of the state. There is a video of snow falling on the iconic Hollywood sign. Californians are not unfamiliar with snow. Snow is something your drive to the mountains to play in. It’s not suppose to be on our lawns. Many people love to head to the mountains to ski and snowboard. As of today, many of these resort locations are so snowbound, visitors can not get to them and many people, who were there when this all started, are stranded. We are talking about five to ten feet of snow in many of these locations. The snow level is as low as it has ever been. Communities not used to snow being on the ground, still have some lingering on their lawns.

Besides snow, California has been setting records for rainfall. The drought stricken state has had major storms marching through like Sherman’s March to the sea (civil war reference for those history challenged readers). This is what everyone in the state was hoping for, moisture. Unfortunately for all those people who clamor to the state to escape winter, it has not been a good year for them. That will teach those Canadians. Snowbirds who populate the Palm Springs area during the winter months a lesson. Our “friends” from the north are not the nice people as they are made out to be. You know what a pain it is to get a tee time on a golf course packed with Snowbirds during the winter? They are also slow. Geez, don’t spend so much time looking for that ball you obviously hit into someone’s backyard. Pick up the pace. But I digress.

This weather has played havoc on my golf game. Each Saturday a group of my friends and I play golf at various courses in the Inland Empire (IE). The IE is located 60 miles east of Los Angeles. We have canceled several rounds due to high winds and downpours. The cancellation was not due to our reluctance to golf in the rain, it was usually because the course was flooded and we might die if we tried to play. The golf course has some kind of silly concern about liability.

Another condition that has put a strain on my game is the frost delays we face almost every Saturday morning. The course management tells us if they let us play with frost on the course, we might cause severe damage. Apparently these folks haven’t seen my friends and I digging and gouging their beautiful turf once we do get out on the course. Just this past Saturday, we were playing on an Indian Reservation course that is attached to their casino. We were in a 2 1/2 frost delay. One of the guys decided to head to the casino to kill time. When he came back, he was $200 richer than when he left. Thank goodness. I think it helped him pay off some of his golf bet losses from the day’s round.

To be honest, I have not heard of too many of the natives out here complaining about all the rain. They know that after years of severe drought, it is needed. This will free up the Californian’s to go back to their old habits of spraying down their driveways and turning the sprinklers on the artificial turf they had installed due to the lack of rain. Californians will always “California.”

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