Raining, Cats and Katamari Damashii
Dec. 29th, 2004 10:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
essentialsaltesLos Angeles got 5.55 inches of rain yesterday. That's the highest single day total since 1956. The average rainfall for December is only 1.91 inches. We got 37% of our annual rainfall in one day.
As you might expect, this causes a large fraction of Angelenos to go around with their heads staring into the sky and their mouths open. The only reason they don't drown is that they're in their cars. But they certainly do cause accidents.
Naturally, the day of greatest rainfall in 50 years is also the day I get to go feed Spike. I fight Sepulveda for a way. Half of the rightmost lane is just a rain-swollen river. I drive in it briefly, and the excess drag on the right side pulls my car toward the curb.
I get on the 405 and merge onto the Marina Freeway. The long connector has a dip in it that's filled with water to a depth of well over two feet at the inside edge. Probably less than a foot in my lane, but it extends all the way across. Up ahead, some woman in a truck just balked. She wouldn't drive through it. She hits the brakes and skids, and then there's a logjam of cars behind her, since she's now smack in the middle of the two lane connector. Possibly, she's stalled out. Eventually, people (including) me, pass her on the left and right and go amphibious for a bit.
There are no other water hazards on the rest of the trip, just the usual driver hazards in the pelting rain and utter blackness.
For those of you who want to steal a few thing at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aaronjv's place, you'll want to know that the key is hidden outside somewhere. Fortunately, that's not going to help you much. I knew exactly where it was supposed to be, and still couldn't find it. It was pitch black and pouring, and I'm scrabbling around in the mud looking for something by shape alone. I succeed eventually and get in. Spike's happy for some company, and as promised, he will lead you to the food bowl and the fridge and help you out as much as possible.
Seems Spike went on a bender over the weekend, because Donahue found and mostly cleaned up some barf on the hall rug. I tried to avoid treading on the barfy remnants, but I found evidence of Spike's further perfidy. He had knocked a makeup brush into the toilet. Bad Spike.
I collected a tasty cat-sitter reward and made it home without incident.
As for Katamari Damacy/Damashii, I twigged to it though a post bymarlo, who deserves gratitude for bringing this silly game to my notice. It got stuck on the Xmaholisolstizaa wish list just in time for mom to get it for me. If you're not familiar with the game, you push a sticky ball around and things stick to it. That's it. You start tiny, but as you pick up more things, your ball grows so that it can pick up bigger things, and bigger things, and bigger things. Like ants and coins and VHS tapes and penguins and dogs and stopsigns and people and bicycles and cows and... everything.
It's absurd and wonderful.
PS Everyone should click the Katamari link above, even if you know what it is.
As you might expect, this causes a large fraction of Angelenos to go around with their heads staring into the sky and their mouths open. The only reason they don't drown is that they're in their cars. But they certainly do cause accidents.
Naturally, the day of greatest rainfall in 50 years is also the day I get to go feed Spike. I fight Sepulveda for a way. Half of the rightmost lane is just a rain-swollen river. I drive in it briefly, and the excess drag on the right side pulls my car toward the curb.
I get on the 405 and merge onto the Marina Freeway. The long connector has a dip in it that's filled with water to a depth of well over two feet at the inside edge. Probably less than a foot in my lane, but it extends all the way across. Up ahead, some woman in a truck just balked. She wouldn't drive through it. She hits the brakes and skids, and then there's a logjam of cars behind her, since she's now smack in the middle of the two lane connector. Possibly, she's stalled out. Eventually, people (including) me, pass her on the left and right and go amphibious for a bit.
There are no other water hazards on the rest of the trip, just the usual driver hazards in the pelting rain and utter blackness.
For those of you who want to steal a few thing at
aaronjv's place, you'll want to know that the key is hidden outside somewhere. Fortunately, that's not going to help you much. I knew exactly where it was supposed to be, and still couldn't find it. It was pitch black and pouring, and I'm scrabbling around in the mud looking for something by shape alone. I succeed eventually and get in. Spike's happy for some company, and as promised, he will lead you to the food bowl and the fridge and help you out as much as possible.Seems Spike went on a bender over the weekend, because Donahue found and mostly cleaned up some barf on the hall rug. I tried to avoid treading on the barfy remnants, but I found evidence of Spike's further perfidy. He had knocked a makeup brush into the toilet. Bad Spike.
I collected a tasty cat-sitter reward and made it home without incident.
As for Katamari Damacy/Damashii, I twigged to it though a post by
marlo, who deserves gratitude for bringing this silly game to my notice. It got stuck on the Xmaholisolstizaa wish list just in time for mom to get it for me. If you're not familiar with the game, you push a sticky ball around and things stick to it. That's it. You start tiny, but as you pick up more things, your ball grows so that it can pick up bigger things, and bigger things, and bigger things. Like ants and coins and VHS tapes and penguins and dogs and stopsigns and people and bicycles and cows and... everything.It's absurd and wonderful.
PS Everyone should click the Katamari link above, even if you know what it is.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-12-29 06:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-29 09:27 pm (UTC)Woohoo, I done writ something good!
Lights out!
Date: 2004-12-29 09:14 pm (UTC)What should you do when you come to an intersection with a flashing red light?
a) treat it as a four-way stop (gold star for you, but the key then becomes HOW do you treat a four-way stop?)
b) if the person in front of you goes, you get to go, too (a popular option)
c) treat it as a four-way stop, but people making left turns have no rights, so ignore them (goes without saying, right?)
d) ignore everyone else, and go as soon as you reach the front of the line
e) (my favorite), treat it as a four-way stop, but ignore the lanes as you travel through the intersection, and take your neighbor's lane if you like it better
Oh, yes, there was much creative driving. There were three intersections on my 9.5 mile trip with lights not working, and one with lights quite out (but with cops directing traffic).
no subject
Date: 2004-12-29 10:10 pm (UTC)Our tornado
Date: 2004-12-31 12:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-02 08:02 pm (UTC)We keep the toilet lid closed because Spike likes to throw his toys into the air and swat them. The makeup brush is one of his favorites (he took it from Kirsten).
I think the rug is going to be burned...or turned over, stain-side down.