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