Rainy day thoughts

It’s raining…Here in the land of endless sun…

No, It’s not raining, it’s pouring…  and we welcome it… Here in northern California this is notable… we haven’t see rain in some time…  months… we are in a drought… Likely still in a drought after this rain…
 
Yesterday the daughter and I went to the local Safeway... on a grocery run... we encountered two accidents in the 4 or so mile trip... the first a one car roll over... on slick, rain damp streets... (everyone ok) the second a two car accident a block from the first... rain = slick streets = cars go bump...

Tioga Pass closed at 8:00 last night… It may reopen if we don’t get more rain… but for now it is closed…

By my measurements, we are somewhere around an inch… in an hour…

Here in the west our vision of rain and drought is different… drought is not a local phenomena… if it never rained here we might still have water…  such is the way of a dry place on the coast with high mountains about 100 miles away to catch snow…   snow that will be our water some months or years later…

But any rain is welcome… and this rain is bringing snow to the high Sierra… Tioga pass may have closed last night and I may have noted its closing earlier… in this post.

In a week I will be in Yosemite… and drive past the turn off for Tioga Pass at Crane Flat… I can check the status for myself… next week… I will check the devastation from the Rim fire as well… sometimes eyes on the ground are what is needed to understand the issues… The Rim fire was in part a result of the drought… but also the result of 100 years of forest management… bad forest management… I note that reports suggest that the fire was less intense, more natural within Yosemite National Park… a park with a long standing well thought out fire management plan…

Outside the rain is slowing… I went out and swept off the driveway in the rain, using the free water to help clean the yard…   The yard is dry… in need of water… the plants holding on, living on the water I measure out from a rubber hose (rubber is much better than vinyl or other plastics… )

I have a bit of fire wood on hand… I need more… the rain suggests winter and the change of seasons…

Randy