Rainy Days and Mondays…..And why does no one know about Fukushima?

Karen Carpenter’s death happened before I was of an age to be affected by the loss of great talent. Prince and George Michael however made me sad. Its odd to morn the loss of people we didn’t personally know. (Plus I was totally expecting to marry one of them when I was in High School— yes I know—but I was in High School, don’t judge)

But in a way we do know great artists, they spoke to us with music. You must have an ice cube for a heart not to hear Karen Carpenter sing “Rainy days and Mondays always get me down… “ and not feel at least a bit mellon collie.  I heard this song this last week and I admit I teared up.  I think our collective sadness over the death of talent is in part being deprived of what they might have shared with the world in the future.  And the other part of how they made us feel human, connected and not alone through their music.

It has been raining in SoCal, and based on the News coverage you think the apocalypse was upon us. Now granted Sothern Californian’s don’t do well in the rain. We can’t drive in it. It messes up our hair, melts our Botox and ruins outdoor activities.  For which we have come to expect as available for our enjoyment 365 days of the year. The rest of the world knows better; sunny days, great songs, good friends, happiness and love… all should be cherished because rain and Mondays are inevitable.

What I really don’t understand with all the news coverage about rain and Trump’s latest tweet, why no one knows about the Fukushima nuclear disaster?  I like to think I’m somewhat informed about current events, but when a friend mentioned it, I had no idea what he was talking about.

So here you go…. There was an accident at Fukushima nuclear plant initiated primarily by the tsunami following the Tohoku earthquake in March 2011. There is tons of details online if you want be more informed and alarmed. But basically the plant had a complete meltdown, the damage has yet to be contained and has been leaking 300 tons of radiation into the Pacific since 2011 every eight days. It is estimated that the radiation would take 3-5 years to hit the west coast. So now.

It is stated by the ‘experts’ the radiation levels would be low and highly diluted by the time it gets to the west coast. And this might be comforting if the damage was contained and the radioactive material was not still constantly dumbing into the Pacific, but they don’t know when this might stop, it is completely uncontained.

Anyone wanna borrow my Geiger counter? And I hope these goulashes are more than waterproof.

It Never Rains in Southern California

This iconic song by … I bet you don’t know. I know I didn’t. I’ve heard this song 1000’s of times and would of in a millions years never guessed… Drumroll…Albert Hammond. He is a British singer songwriter. So compared to UK weather, it must feel like it never rains in sunny SoCal.

Well it rained this week, didn’t it my Cali friends. And thank you to the friends who sent me this picture of high-heeled swim fins. I love shoes and I love funny, a perfect combo, thank you.

Because I have spent a quality amount of time in places with “real” weather, I can tell you it really doesn’t rain in Southern California. Which is a whole other issue.

But until you have experienced rain that breaks your umbrella- yes broken, rain that pelts your body so hard, side ways, you think it will bruise you and have been completely soaked in less than 3 seconds, WITH an umbrella, Oh and its freezing, no actually freezing under 32F, not what Californians think is freezing which is anything under 60F, you have never really experienced rain. That was one very long run on sentence. Sorry to all the English teachers.

Californians are weather pussies. And I totally include myself in this group. I’m a native, I love SoCal, it is my home.  We/ I like it sunny, but not too hot, a nice breeze off the ocean is perfect, but not wind. We/I like our sky blue and our clouds white, not grey. We/I have a temperature tolerance of about 9 degrees (Fahrenheit) So about 68F to 77F degrees is how we/I like to roll. Everything else is unacceptable!  We/I don’t know what to do when our narrow weather parameters are altered. We can’t drive. We really don’t know how to drive in weather, as a group, it is frightening.  We can’t work—not with all this rain. It’s depressing. We can’t go out – its too cold. Basically we break down. And all the local news can do is focus on “Storm Watch”—like some great catastrophe took place. It rained 2 inches this week. Lets get a bit of perspective.

Here’s some perspective. A few years back I was doing the Avon Breast Cancer Walk in Boston. Over the course of 2 days 100s of people walked 40 miles to raise money and awareness for breast cancer. It’s Boston, its May I show up 5am for the walk, which today will be 26 miles. It’s raining, the kind of rain I mentioned above. I’m from SoCal, I don’t do rain. I’m trying to have a good attitude, its charity, but again I’m soaked already and cold. I might have been a bit too whiny because this 70ish year old women who I could tell from her appearance was recently or currently in treatment for cancer, turned and looked at me and then utter these words which I have replayed in my mind many a time when I feel I need checking.

“Really its just rain, stop being such a pussy.”

I was just shut down and given my walking papers by an older lady with cancer who also was doing this walk. I will never forget her.  So I put a smile on my face, knowing that blisters heal and walked those 26 miles in horrible rain with a grateful heart that I don’t have cancer.

Get really SoCal El Nino is coming. Find your umbrellas, Maybe leave some extra times to drive safely, get those tires checked—Hell its rain- stay home and hide, that’s the safest way and invite me over for hot cocoa.

Bonus trivia, Benjamin Franklin invented swim fins, bet you would not have guessed that one either.

Laura