It's August, which is usually a hot, dry, dusty month in Southern California. However, we are in the midst of a tropical storm, formerly known as Hurricane Hilary, and it's been raining all day.
The storm's winds are supposed to arrive this afternoon and evening. From the local media coverage, you would think Armageddon was approaching. My phone has exploded with siren blasts and multiple emergency warning calls from the power company, my insurance company, and city government. Good grief, people, calm down. Rain is a good thing in this part of the country, regardless of the calendar month.
Earlier this week, the full-on hurricane was expected to hit. That hasn't happened around here since 1858. The last time a tropical storm hit this area was 1939. That's 84 years ago. No one was worried about carbon footprints or climate change back then. Hurricanes and tropical storms were accepted as the consistently unpredictable weather. And today's storm proves that weather continues to do whatever it's going to do, no matter the amount of angst and wailing from the environmentalists.
The late comedian George Carlin did a fabulous stand-up bit on "the planet" nearly a quarter century ago. The man was not only common-sense smart and logical; he was prescient. His descriptions of the environmentally preoccupied concerns and the examples he offers of the stolid resiliency of Planet Earth are not just hilariously funny. Carlin's observations are perfectly timed to our climate-obsessed modern moment.
It's kind of fun to have the weather to blame for going nowhere today and settling in with a book. The storm is also a good reminder that we shouldn't kid ourselves that we are in control. Weather will do what it will, whether or not we are prepared.
