I have lived in California since 2008 physically. I have lived here all my life mentally. I love it here. Sure, there are things I do not like about it: cost of living, some of the people, earthquakes, and that is really about it. California and I just were meant to be...even that game on Facebook says so...you know the one where it says “Where should you live?” I am pretty sure it only considers like five places, but even Facebook agreed that I should be living in California.
For most of my actual time in California, the weather has been the same. The beach is always a crap shoot, it could be amazing or it could be mired in a marine layer that might burn off in an hour or could last for weeks. Ever so slightly inland it is cold in the winter and hot as hell in the summer. And there is very little rain...like maybe late December, January and February. Maybe, if we were really lucky.
But in the past couple of winters it has rained a great deal. Like our lakes are full or almost at capacity after like a 20 year drought. We have had rain in March, April, May and June...but never July. Like ever.
We also don’t ever have thunder storms or really hurricanes or tornados. I mean they do happen but they are extremely rare. At least in my limited living experience.
Now I spent a great part of my childhood living in Panama where it rains all the fucking time and then in Florida where it rains only slightly less. I have and continue to believe that the sunshine state was named by a committee of people to increase tourism and by no one that actually understood the climate of the state.
Thunder storms are the norm in Florida...and I can’t remember about Panama. I think we got them there too, but really I just remember rain coming down in the rainy season (where it rains twice a day or more) compared to the dry season (where it only rains like once a day) like someone upwards had forgotten to turn off a very large faucet. I mean, the shit came fucking down!
Now Florida is like that too but there were also LOTS of thunder storms. It is kind of like Florida’s political climate extends to the sky. It is a dumpster fire shitshow just waiting to happen, all the fucking time. It just rains and storms, and hails and tornados and hurricanes with fuckery to boot. Why anyone, including myself, ever wanted to live there is beyond me. Sometimes I have no explanations for my actions, still. But Florida receives the kind of weather akin to fire and brimstone. Florida’s weather seems to confirm that whatever deity might exists, she is fucking pissed at Florida, for sure!
So this morning, as the dogs snoozed on the bed and I intermittently wrote and drank coffee (you cannot do both those activities at the same time and not make a giant fucking mess) I was, as were the dogs, startled by this very LOUD and LONG clap of thunder...which also had quite a lightning strike that occurred somewhat simultaneously. Usually the gap between the lightning and the thunder indicates the length of time before the coming storm...this morning the weather alerted us that the storm was upon us. And soon shortly after, rain. A pleasant but insistent rain fell from the sky.
Before the rain began, I went outside to take a gander at the cloud formations, assuming they would be impressive...nope, blue sky to the West. Pink whispery clouds to the East and striated clouds to the North and South. Not one single cloud that look like a thunder head. Weird. The sky did have a weird glow about it, like something other than dawn. But nothing that would indicate rain was imminent or that there was a clash of titanic proportions occurring heavenward. But let me tell you, one of my dogs is still upset and nervously looking skyward. He is not ok, or happy. And he votes no on California having thunder storms if that is on the ballot in November.
So I guess I have lived somewhere long enough to see climate change in action. The weather here is different...after many years of only the temperature changing, with rhythmic regularity, the weather is becoming increasingly unstable and unpredictable. We just had rain in JULY! Like almost the middle of July. I had to call my mom to make sure she heard it and that I wasn’t losing my mind (I find myself worrying about that with rhythmic regularity also). She is the one who informed me about the lightning strike as I didn’t see it from where I was.
It was a brief but steady shower, one that Florida would have dismissed as “barely anything” but I can tell you from Cali standards, it was something.
My poor dog is so upset because he is not used to or really experienced with loud claps of thunderous rage that reverberate across the sky...and I can imagine from his perspective that was terrifying! Poor thing. He is lying at my feet, touching me, intermittently looking heavenward just to make sure he is not caught unawares again!
It all appears to be over now, less than 30 minutes in total...but an EVENT here in Ojai nevertheless. This will be grocery store fodder for sure and I am sure the Ojai Facebook page is blowing up as I type.
Perhaps gone are my blissful days of the absence of weather. That is how I described California previously. We just have temperature, but not really weather. And I have to admit I liked it that way. But even I, a self professed rain loather, welcomed the downpour this morning as a gift. I mean, rain in JULY, who the fuck knew?
I am a contrarian to my core, so anything to make the pundits about climate change not being a real thing, I am for 100%. No one can say that Cali weather hasn’t changed...look at our lakes and also look at our burning hillsides and mountains.
And as always, life goes on. Again, still. Weather or no weather we live our lives in blissful ignorance of what all the signs that are occurring around us all the time are actually telling us. Nothing, absolutely nothing, remains unchanged. We like to think that things will change for the better, and like with most things, it is usually a mixed bag of good and bad and fucked and not. But it seems to me, that the increasingly digital age and our proliferation of life inside and hooked up to computers and plugged into technology, is some sort of great universal Wizard of Oz type thing...”Don’t pay any attention to the man behind the curtain!” But in our case, it would be “don’t pay any attention to what is going on outside in the actual world, just keep looking at your screen...”
And while I will admit I spend way too much time checking my fucking screens, I also, notice and relish and fear the environmental shifts that are occurring and what they mean for us and the beings we share this planet with...I mean, I am just contrary enough to think that our planet, the great and powerful Mother Earth, might just decide that WE are the blight that needs to be eradicated....and I am not sure I would disagree with her at all. And while I do not want to be part of some sort of global extinction, I can see the evidence mounting that WE are the problem and do not appear to be capable of working toward or being part of the solution.
Again...still.
Fuck.
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