flash flood
10.22.2004
Rain is to L.A. as snow is to Georgia. That's what I hear. Now I assume that the kind of rain they get in L.A., however rarely, is different from the rain that falls in Georgia. I assume that for one to be able to be stuck in traffic for five hours because of "rain" must call for something different from your average daily thunderstorm. I imagine monsoon-esque sheets of water pouring from the sky as if the whole world were covered by, not roofs, but corners of roofs or edges of roofs, like when you're walking in the rain and sprinting from building overhang to building overhang and you inevitably repeatedly find yourself under where the water pours off in thick sheets, right down the center of your back. Over and over again you find yourself wondering whether or not it would be better to just walk in the rain straight out rather than submit yourself to sporadic yet repeated architect-made downpours...Well, here in Austin, TX it's raining, too. Though it's not as much of a strange occurence as it is in Southern California, it is still less frequent than it is in Georgia. And I just drove through what one would call a "flash flood," which, though I may be ilinformed or not informed at all (and I might not know how to spell 'ill-informed,' to top off that beautiful sentence), don't happen in Georgia the same way they happen here.
I have very few memories of 'flash floods' growing up, but I have several memories of said occurrences in the last few years that I've lived in Texas. I mean, I definitely remember 'flash flood warnings' as a kid, as they'd always be flashing across the bottom of the screen during Braves rain delay progamming. I'd be watching Johnny Bench instructing a bunch of kids on the proper way to hold a bat when bunting and the tell-tale beeps would start, and then the list of counties involved in said storm would stream across. It was then, right before the MLB bloopers show, that I would ask, "What is considered the 'Atlanta Metro Area?'" to which my mother would reply that yes, in fact, we were in this area, but that our house was well above the level to which water could naturally rise without the aid of a man-made dam and such.
But tonight the rain is falling down, if I may quote Wayne Hancock, and it seems wetter than any other water I've ever felt, perhaps because this is Texas and everything's bigger, wetter and possibly a bit more interesting here.
