California storms

The storms last week here in California were pretty bad in many areas. Here in my neck of the woods, they were relatively uneventful. Lots of rain and wind, and even some rare thunder and lightening - but that was about it. Some rocks fell down the cliffs onto the canyon roads here and there, but those were cleared away pretty quickly by the rock-clearing trucks that patrol the canyons during rains. The thunder and lightening reminded me of being back home in Alabama and Georgia. I can still remember back years ago when I took my former stepkids with me and my two children to visit my family back home, and there was a typical Georgia thunderstorm. One of them, upon hearing the thunder, turned to me wide-eyed and asked, "What's that?" When I explained that it was just thunder, they replied, "What's thunder?" It dawned on me that, growing up in southern California, they had never experienced a thunderstorm.

In a way, I feel fortunate to have been able to experience what it's like to live in the deep south, the west coast, and the northeastern United States. Many people here in California have never experienced what it's like to weather a tornado or a thunderstorm, caught lightening bugs in a mason jar, had fire ants swarm up your legs, watched the spread of Kudzu, or experienced "red bugs"...all common in the South. Many people in the South have never experienced an earthquake or been evacuated due to a wildfire, witnessed a mudslide or rock slide, or had ants invade their home...as is common here in California. And many here in California as well as the South have never experienced what it's like to open their front door to a wall of snow, as is common in the northeast. I've experienced all of those things. I think it's kind of neat.

I guess if I had to choose, I'd pick the South. I grew up there, and still consider it "home". People still go to Church on Sundays, fear God, and cook the tastiest dang food you ever done et in yer life.