Mother Nature Time

A picture of the beautiful wildflowers in California. Definitely Mother Nature at her best! 

A picture of Mother Nature at her worst taken by one of our faithful readers.

Karen

Here in Southern California, the end of summer, beginning of fall, signals the start of wild fire season. This year we’ve had a particularly brutal introduction as one the biggest fires ever to sweep through the Angles Forrest began raging and is still not out two weeks later. As I live very close to where the fire started I’ve been living with the consequences. For the first week and a half the air was so thick with smoke it looked like a heavy fog. The air smelled like the largest summer barbecue in history was in progress. No longer could I work on my endless porch project. I was forced to stay inside. Here in Pasadena, and other foothill cities, when a fire starts we don’t run for the hills. Okay bad joke. : ) We run from one air conditioned building to the next and pray the fire stays high up in the foothills and doesn’t decide to stop devouring scrub brush and small trees but change its diet to houses.

Pet 

Sounds like Mother Nature gone wild, although I’ve read suspicions of arson abound. I’m sure if you suffering residents find the match tossing perpetrator you’ll band together and finish him off. Or at least make him/her suffer. Mother Nature is pretty well ignoring us here in Eastern Tennessee. Last year this time we were in the midst of a horrendous drought and the farmers were crying the blues. Never rains, but it pours and this year the same farmers are showing rotted crops from too much rain and standing water. Not near so bad though as our relatives in Kentucky who were pretty well washed out with four inches an hour of rain earlier this year. We did discover a leak in the roof of our new addition and had to put buckets under the waterfall until the contractor came out and fixed the problem. Misplaced vent or some simple thing like that. Bet you Southern Californians would love to have some of that rain. Unfortunately it never rains there, right? 

Karen

Well, not lately. But there’s a rumor that El Nino is headed our way. One of the reasons I’ve been working on restoring my porches. The last El Nino year we had two weeks of non-stop rain. That was when I lived in my Craftsman bungalow with a river rock foundation and a small basement. Yes Virginia, some older California homes actually have basements. I had the brilliant idea of putting my office down there because it was so cool (the house had no AC) and cozy. Big mistake!! The basement flooded and my office was wadding in 10 inches of water! Can you say disaster for all things electronic!  So although we desperately need the rain, we have to be careful what we wish for cause when they do come, Southern California turns into Seattle Washington. 

Pet

Proof that rain does come to Southern California: The movies and TV. Whenever the story is set in LA, the clouds let loose big time.  I’m sure if you drive through town on a rainy day, you’ll see those cameras rolling. Everyone thinks that the biggest danger of hurricanes comes from those fierce winds. Albeit they’re not much fun, but the real villain comes from, you guessed it, the rain. In Florida the drains are not set up to handle all that extra moisture. So new rivers and lakes spring up. The poor folks, who can’t sell because their property is not waterfront, have that minor detail corrected by Mother Nature.  Those who already live on the waterfront were rewarded a few years ago when Floridians experienced a barrage of hurricanes by becoming boat owners. Yup, the front yard became a marina but pity the poor boat owners. They had to traverse the coast searching for the speed boat that sped away, the wrong way. When Mother Nature goes wild, many suffer. 

Karen

That’s for sure. Of course we have wild fires here to worry about but also the Big One. I guess as a non-native I still find the whole idea of living in the Big Ones shadow a bit hard to take. Most of the time I walk around totally oblivious to the fact that the earth could move, or even split apart, at any second until it actually does. A nice little size 3 or 4 earthquake will send me into nightmares about The Big One. I get up the next day and double check all my antiques to make sure that my quake hold is still firmly in place. A native, and fellow antiquer, had to show me the tricks of earthquake protection. Who knew you had to anchor down all your china and glass wear to make sure it doesn’t end up a shattered mess on the floor? Not me. Now my friend has turned me into a bit of a fanatic. She lost thousands of dollars worth of amazing china and antique glass in the Northridge earthquake. She thought she had done enough to protect her collections but the 7.0 earthquake taught her over the top protection is the only way to save what you love.  The things we do to keep Mother Natures destruction at bay.

Pet 

And then there are tornados. One year, a while ago, we were driving through Texas in the month of April. A horrendous rain storm kicked up. We turned on the full of static radio and heard, “A tornado is about to touch down in Paris, Texas.” Then the signal disappeared altogether.  I looked at the map and screamed, “Paris is the next town we’ll be going through.” We immediately pulled into a motel and found everyone huddled in doorways. All these prime spots were taken so we just stood at the desk until a brave clerk ventured out to check us in. No problem since the tornado did not come our way though much damage was done in its hazardous path. Doorways are also a favorite spot for Californians when the earth tremors. But you know, I’m not sure they’re the safest place to be. With that extra material which I guess folks think will protect them, what happens if the building collapses? Wouldn’t a hit on the head with a piece of drywall and some plaster be less dangerous than a club coming from the doorways’ frames? Decisions, decisions to be made in snap seconds when trying to hide from Mother Nature’s wrath. 

Karen 

That’s funny you should bring the doorway safe haven up. Think I just read a few weeks ago that they found standing in the door way isn’t that safe at all. Flying debris can hit you and wouldn’t be pretty if it were glass. I think they went back to the other safe haven, under a large heavy piece of furniture. This might be safe if you live in a one-story house but what about on the twentieth floor of an apartment building? Hiding under your grandmother’s antique dinning table isn’t going to help much if the building is collapsing. I think my worst experience with Mother Nature was when I was on a ferry going from Okinawa to Kyushu Japan.  Halfway into our trip they had a typhoon warning and sure enough we couldn’t get out of its way. The waves were crashing over the three-story ferry. The bottom floor was filled up with water like a swimming pool. My friend and I fled to higher ground, which meant invading first class on the third floor. We could barely navigate the stairs, the ship was rocking so badly. At the height of the storm when I thought the ferry was going to sink I joked to my friend, “Well, if we’re going to die it might as well be in first class. : )     

Pet 

Seems like Mother Nature takes turns on who will be hit. Texas, victim of a terrible drought is now flooding. The sun shines and temps rise into the 80’s in the usually frigid mid west. The weather prognosticators don’t know which end is up, so many predictions are wrong. At least we haven’t heard that four letter word, SNOW, in the forecast--yet! Here in Tennessee where we only have a smattering locals often wish for the stuff. Admittedly a winter wonderland is beautiful to behold, but getting through it…pffft. So I say those who yearn for snow have never survived a white winter. We lived for five years in upstate New York touching the Canadian Border. We admired the colorful flags attached to the antennas on cars not yet knowing that the practical purpose of these bright wavers was to facilitate finding the right car when those white drifts covered them. Everyone there expected the snow but sometimes Mother Nature pulls a surprise. One year we had an early flight out of Dulles Airport near DC so we checked into a motel the evening before. We found pandemonium in the lobby. A plane had landed carrying folks who’d parked their cars around the hotel. A blizzard had hit the night before continuing into the morning and the cars were buried. No antenna flags so only much digging could reveal their transportation home. Do you think Mother Nature had a good laugh???

Karen

She laughs her ass off everyday. As a former NY upstater I can totally relate to your flag story. There are so many things natives to do cope with Mother Nature. But I don’t want to bash Mother Nature too much. She might decide to have a typhoon over my house. : ) And she does do some amazing things. Although the fire we just experienced was a terrible tragedy. And the locals fear the flooding that might be brought on by El Nino, at the same time come spring; we are going to see wildflower on the hills we haven’t seen in 80 to 100 years.  Mother Nature is pretty cleaver. She usually has a plus side to the disaster she wields.  The heat generated from the fires causes the seeds that have been dormant all this time to sprout. Two years ago the same thing happened abut 80 miles north and the wildflowers were so spectacular they were on the front page of all the local papers.  Not being a native Southern Californian, I decided I better drive up and experience the rare phenomenon myself. I’ll never forget when I turned the corner and got my first glimpse of the foothills. They were blanketed with a kaleidoscope of colors. Bright purple flowers fought for space against yellow daisies and the shocking red orange of California poppies.  As I took dozens of pictures to capture the moment, I couldn’t help but want to bow to good old Mother Nature. She’s has quite the knack for decorating.

Pet

We get the good and the bad from Mother Nature. With everything quiet now, I say we bid goodbye to the lady and not try to stir her up, even though sometimes she produces spectacular sights. Bye Mom!