A Smug Moment

[MK]

California culture is known for taking casual to the extreme. Sometimes I stand out becuase I am dressed nice. There is a real contrast when I am wearing a tie at dinner and the guy the next table over is wearing shorts, a ball cap with some logo and open toed shoes.

Another thing about LA culture is that people are completely unprepared for rain. Many people notice how some drivers are precipitatedly challanged by drizzle, but they also don't know how to dress. Today was one of those times.

I saw on weather.com that there was a 50% chance of rain. That is license for me to wear my trench coat. When my family left for church this morning it was dry but cloudy. Everyone at church is pretty used to seeing me with a lid, which regardless of the style or color they think is an Indiana Jones hat.

Anyway.......When church was over it was raining. This caused a rukus. "OH NO! It is raining! What shall we ever do?" Ok......I might be exaggerating just a little.

People were hiding under all kinds of things trying to avoid the rain. Usually people hang out in front and talk, making it very difficult to get out......but not today. They were running here and there in every direction. Most didn't even have jackets much less a hat or umbrella.

Yours truely strode leisurely down the center of the sidewalk wearing a London Fog trenchcoat and my vintage Bullocks-Wilshire fedora as my fellow members whizzed past with everything imaginable atop thier heads dashing from one awning to another.

I just smiled quietly .......and smugly......to myself.

 

[Andykev]

Weather

Most people in the Bay Area dress for the anticipated weather, which is damp rain (now) punctuated by crisp clear cold days. In the summer, ball caps, shorts and sport shirts are the uniform of the day (think Dockers). However, in the summer, SF is famous for cold FOG. You can freeze to death. When you wear a hat, you are actually warmerr, and can get by with a light(er) jacket. No heavy New York overcoats.

AND I AGREE...except for the "Senior" crowd, the poor manners, shabby dress, and bb cap t-shirted flip flops is a way of life BECAUSE DADDY DIDN'T TEACH THEM ANY BETTER...(gee, Dad was from the land of flower children and leisure suits).

Good story! We should all dress up when going out, it used to be the proper thing to do.

 

[kent]

It's always quite nice being able to walk the mile or so to class from the parking lot without getting very wet.
The problem here at my University is everyone else has umbrellas, and are very dangerous with them. Most of the umbrellas are between my neck and eyes, so I tend to see the worst of it.

 

[Pyroxene]

I think the same thing applies to snow. I remember seeing many people on the street up north wearing no hat whatsoever. Why? The hat does 2 things, 1.) keeps the snow off your head and 2.) help retain body heat.

Sometimes just doesn't make sense.

Pyr.

(Sorry I guess this should have been written in the hat area.)

 

[MK]

It is a hat and jacket thing.....at least in LA.

 

[Forrestal]

Hey Pyroxenx,
That's a great picture of Emmanuel Goldenberg you have there!
Hes' one of my favorites.
Regards,
Forrestal

 

[Rundquist]

The other day it was raining here (I live in Los Angeles like MK) and I stepped out for a bite to eat. As I walked around in the parking lot of the shopping center, I noticed people walking around in shorts and T-shirts. This wasn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t a case of being caught in a downpour, it had started raining the night before. I don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t get it. They made no accommodations for the rain in their driving practices either. They were just flying down the road. I don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t get it.

 

[Marlowe]

"The other day it was raining here (I live in Los Angeles like MK) and I stepped out for a bite to eat. As I walked around in the parking lot of the shopping center, I noticed people walking around in shorts and T-shirts. This wasn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t a case of being caught in a downpour, it had started raining the night before. I don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t get it. They made no accommodations for the rain in their driving practices either. They were just flying down the road. I don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t get it."

When I lived in L.A., I rode a motorcycle, day or night, rain or shine, so I had to pay attention to how people drive. This is what I noticed: People in L.A. are fairly good drivers when compared to other parts of the country. They're not the best, but they're not the worst, either--except, perhaps, when it rains. Then drivers split themselves into four groups:

1. Those who drive exactly the same whether it is raining or not. (They're not quite sure how to deal with the rain, so they don't.)

2. Those who slow down a lot when it rains. (These people get scared when it rains on their drive--they panic and slow down too much.)

3. Those who SPEED UP when it rains. (20-something racerboys or others who have no idea how much less traction their tires have on wet roads--or don't care. "Hey, this is fun! Let's go FASTER!")

4. Those who slow down a little when it rains. (These people are probably from Oregon, northern California, Washington, or some other place where they've had to learn rain-driving habits. Or maybe they're just naturally smart enough to factor in a bit less traction to their personal risk/reward calculus.)

I chalk this up to the dearth of rainfall in southern California. It's not that it never rains there, but that it rains infrequently enough that most people don't really build "driving in the rain" habits. Drivers in Oregon, say, or here in Florida, where it rains a lot--and rains hard, too--contain a much higher percentage of people who slow down a little for rain.

All these different driving styles make for "interesting times" on the L.A. freeways; so many people driving around at widely-varying speeds. Estimating all their behaviors, the motocycle's lessened traction, lane-splitting, etc. made riding in the rain on the freeway during rush hour an exercise in fierce, laser-intense, diamond-hard concentration. Sort of like walking a balance-beam while juggling vials of nitroglycerine...

 

[havershaw]

In Arizona, when it rains (not often, I can tell you), everyone drives INCREDIBLY slow. We don't get much rain here, so it really blows folks' minds here. However, the last time I was in LA duing a rainstorm, I happened to be on the freeway (it was night time and I had just started driving back to AZ) and we almost had to pull off the road and wait the storm out. So many people were just flying by and dousing our little VW in rain that we just couldn't see anything. Visibility was horrible; we couldn't see probably more than six or seven feet in front of us. I was still going about seventy miles an hour, just to try to keep up with traffic. When I slowed down to sixty, everyone honked and flew by like maniacs.

I'm from Pittsburgh, PA originally, a city which is second only to Seattle in the amount of rain it receives every year, so I'm not scared of rain. But I am scared of LA freeways in the rain (although what I experienced was more like a tropical storm).

 

[PrettyBigGuy]

I grew up in northern Illinois and I went to college in Michigan, so I am no stranger to driving in adverse conditions. I've driven in downpours so heavy that my car's windshield wipers couldn't keep up, unplowed snow midway up my wheels and in ice storms where the slightest application of the brakes sent my car sliding sideways down the street. All of these things were no problem because everyone else on the road knew how to deal with the conditions. Now that I live in SoCal, I'm NEVER more terrified then when I have to drive on the LA freeways in the RAIN!
One day there is going to be a freak blizzard here (like the one that just hit Portland). I will definately call in sick that day, snuggle up with a cup of hot cocoa and watch the genocide that occurs on the TV as everyone struggles to drive to work.

 

[PADDY]

MK...I'm melting...I'm melting....(Oh, it's only a little bit of rain!)

Reminded me of the Wizard of Oz when you gave the anecdote of going to church and it raining. Like you, it's a ready excuse to get a nice trench coat out! Or a hat.