This town was crawling with rainbows yesterday... The sky was absolutely promiscuous with them. The storms cleared out over the ocean first, even while water was still falling heavily over land, as it has been for the last eight days. I drove from the Valley over the mountains and in through Malibu, and I lost count of the rainbows. And people were walking through the rain smiling, because they knew it was over. It was like an ex-wife who wants to bitch at you just a few more times, even though the paperwork for the divorce is in the mail. Few places on Earth can compare with LA on the first sunny day after a cleansing rain.

Thanks for the photo, Gregg - and for the write-up, Crid, love the idea of promiscuous rainbows! Lots of HO HOs to all ye commenters - and of course all best to you, our hotsness - I mean hostess :)

What a terrific photo! I was just talking to an LA-native office budy who's spending Christmas back home -- apparently not too far from The Grove. He said that while the streeet he's on hasn't suffered badly, some of the surrounding streets were almost like rivers. Have you in LA had much trouble with flooding?

Was going to comment about the Flying Santa/Double Rainbow symbolism, but it's way too close to quitting time.

With the rain that went on and on for over a week here, I've been saying LA was starting to seem like Portland but with really obscene real estate prices.

Someone said that over the weekend LA felt like "brain-dead Seattle."

Also, this

The music she moves to is music that makes me a dancer.

See also (locals only)

IF you can't have a white one why not a multicolored one.

Venn har

When I went out to CA with my lady's daughter and SIL one time -- I pointed out to them that the city roads had no street drainage (i.e. storm drains). This is in Lompoc, CA.

Basically anything south of San Francisco is a desert. Yes, you may be on the ocean, but the humidity is negligible most times -- and the nights are cold to the day's heat.

That said -- nice picture and hope the best for a Merry Christmas.

"Few places on Earth can compare with LA on the first sunny day after a cleansing rain."

You just notice because it's rare and because of the contrast. You do know you're in a coastal desert, and get your water from two states away, right?

> You just notice because it's rare and
> because of the contrast.

Every place on Earth has meteorological charms which happen annually... or even less frequently. In Indiana, the first chill of winter is always poignant enough to weep for, as is the weekend closest to October 15, when the forest leaves peak in their riot of flaming color. Jacksonville (Florida) had seasons too, and in three years there I saw a single snowfall, a five-minute, no-stick flurry on a Thursday afternoon.

More to the point, these things always happen in the context of everything else you love or hate about a place. Yesterday afternoon, the final and seemingly heaviest of these week-long rains fell around sunny, golden holes the the gray sky... Hence all the rainbows, and the patient grins of the people during this last soaking.

As I pulled into the parking lot of this grocery, I saw a shopper I'll never forget: A typical California sun-bunny, fortyish, wearing funky fashions. She was toting her stuff to her car (Beemer) in an unhurried way, letting the water fall on the groceries, her hair, her clothes, and down her cleavage. Instead of scooting for cover, she was sort of bopping up and down. We smiled at each other through my windshield, because we were thinking the same thing— The rainbows mean this shit is almost over. We get 350 cloudless days a year out here, and we just crossed 8 of the wet ones off the calendar... You're goddam right its "rare".

Amy's not kidding about the humidity: For those of us who really, really hate mugginess, the West L.A. property taxes are worth every fucking penny. It's the south of France, but it's in America.

And seriously, why do I care where the water comes from? So it costs a little more; like every other resource dispensed by modern society, needs are met through price and politics. Food travels all over the world nowadays, increasing its cost almost negligably, while protecting us from blight, nutritional deficiencies, and boredom. Who knows where we'd live if we could only claim resources within an afternoon's walk?... And who the fuck cares?

Perhaps we should be grateful for your concern at the fragility of our circumstance, but I suspect that if we started critiquing your neighborhood in the same spirit, you'd think it somewhat pretentious, too.

Take one last look at the big version of that picture, and note the One Wilshire building at right/south...

That's the MAE-West site, and the words you're reading almost certainly went through there.

Crid,

I go through MAE-EAST.

As far as complaining about SoCal -- I wasn't. Just commenting that they didn't build for the weather like was done in the midwest and northeast. They generally didn't need it.

I just hope Amy makes it out before they fall into the ocean.

> complaining about SoCal -- I wasn't. Just
> commenting that they didn't build
> for the weather

Dude, ask me how many thousands of dollars I've spent shoring up my roof in the last ten years.

(Don't ask.)

Crid,

You might love this link or hate it because its so familiar.

Dood, I had a childhood full of that, which was more than enough. Why would you do this to a woman you loved?

This was one of the formative experiences of the decade for me... While the truth is that more people died that week in Chicago from the cold. But guess who got the federal loan guarantees for reconstruction?

Youse pays yer money and youse takes yer pick: Wherever you are on this planet, something can go wrong.

(Have I mentioned the humidity? At this moment on Christmas Eve, and the golden Pacific afternoon sun is streaming across my living room wall with a beauty you would not believe....)

Well the sun went down and we're expecting another inch or two of the white sh## overnight.

If that is your wife -- tell her merry xmas and she looks great.

Youse pays yer money and youse takes yer pick: Wherever you are on this planet, something can go wrong.

Very true but other than major snowstorms, which melt eventually, our disasters are generally predictable slow moving ones. ;-)

She's a random internet photo person. She's not enjoying her coffee