Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Rain in L.A.


We're in a drought.  Or so we've been told in Los Angeles for ages, during long-time dryness, and it's been getting worse. 

It's hard to convince myself of that looking out my window as I write this, though.  It's raining--steadily, and somewhat hard.  I checked the online weather forecast when I could for its hourly prediction, and we're supposed to have thunderstorms later.  Whether there's a 100% chance at any particular hour changes, but it looks pretty positive that we'll have them sometime soon. 

Does this mean the drought is over?  Or that, if our supposedly rainy season continues to be rainy, the drought will become a thing of the past?  I hope so, but that remains to be seen.

In the meantime, one question I have at the moment is whether I'll be able to post this blog. 

When we had rain earlier this week, it knocked out my Internet access for a while, and when access finally returned it was very slow until the rain ended.  This time, when the rain began, the Internet worked just fine at first... but by the time I started writing this blog that had stopped, and the access again became spotty. 

Why?  Well, my Internet service provider is a cable company.  Despite its being a big name, I've found its reliability questionable over the years.  They've increased the numbers and intensity of the cables in my hillside area, but although it's improved somewhat it's far from being completely reliable.   

Only problem is that it's fairly much the only game in town--or at least this area. And its cables apparently don't like rain. 

For most things I need to do Internet access is definitely a plus but it's not always necessary.  I can write by just using my computer, which, knock on wood (yes, I'm writing Superstition Mysteries), is doing just fine.  Research for what I'm writing is another matter, but I can always make notes on what I need to look up or confirm.  Communicating with people via email, participating in social media--well, they can wait, if necessary.  For now. 

After I started writing this, we called that cable company and complained.  We actually reached a real, live, nice person, and they're sending a technician to try to fix things.  Yay!  But I'll believe it once things are checked out, updated and changed and, in the this rain and the next one, whenever it might be, we do have reliable Internet access. 

In the meantime, as long as the rain comes and goes rather than hanging on for many days at a time--which is currently the prediction--I should have at least sporadic Internet access again.  Plus, I may be able to hook up my smartphone or at least use it for absolute necessities. 

All right.  I'll stop complaining.  After all, I'm sure most of you who are reading this live in areas where there is actually weather, maybe even year round.  I used to experience it myself when I grew up in Pittsburgh.  But I've gotten somewhat spoiled living in L.A. for so long.   

Anyway, enjoy your weather, whatever it is.  I can certainly put up with mine.  And at least I don't have to try to drive in snow, which was something I never really learned. 

What's your weather like these days?

4 comments:

Betty Hechtman said...

Linda, I'm right there with you being gloomy about the rain. My Internet works, but we have a leaky roof. When it's not raining we don't think about the roof and when it does rain, it's too late to do anything, but shroud the dining room in garbage bags.

The good thing about the rain is that when it stops, most of the problems are over. It's not like having to shovel your walk or dig your car out.

Linda O. Johnston said...

We had a leaky roof that we nursed for a long time, Betty, but eventually gave in and got a new one. Regarding our Internet, a technician came and found multiple problems that were exacerbated by the rain but they're hopefully fixed now. At least for the moment our Internet is working and is faster than it was before.

Monica Ferris said...

Back in the fifties there was a silly song called "Manana" ("Tomorrow" in Spanish) about a leaky room that no one wanted to fix in the rain - but when it stopped raining, why go climbing up on the roof "in such a lovely day?"

Linda O. Johnston said...

I remember hearing that song sometime, Monica, but not the leaky room part of it! Now the tune is going through my head.