Rain is good news, no matter what TV anchors might say

Hopefully while you are reading this it is raining outside.

I love when it rains. I love to drive in it (except on those Southern California freeways where everyone around you is going 75 miles per hour). I loved reporting on the rain while I was a practicing journalist; checking rainfall totals, watching out for when Atascadero Lake would flow over the spillway and when the creeks start flowing.

Last Saturday morning I drove around the lake to find a large puddle forming around the island with some waterfowl enjoying the outing. Where do those ducks come from so soon? Are they a dry-land bird until a body of water produces itself?

The major topic of conversation for the past several months has been about when it will start raining.

Now it has.

While the rest of us are jubilant about the rain, the network news folks zero in on the mudslides, power outages and trees that have blown over. I can’t count the number of times I saw film of some TV news person in waders showing how the water was coming over the curb, which is about 10 inches deep.

It is water, folks. We’ve been waiting for it for almost four years.

I delight when some bystander points out to a newsman something like, “Well, yes, there is some flooding, but we need the rain.”

I feel bad for those homeowners whose homes were damaged and outright destroyed by the mudslides that, in most cases, are the result of recent wildland fires. That raises an issue of city and county planners who allow building on mountaintops, steep hillsides and near water sources, such as the ocean, rivers and streams and more.

I’ve taken pictures of the Salinas River, Atascadero Creek and Graves Creek when they overflowed their banks here in Atascadero. I’m anxious to see how the folks living in, say, “The Lakes” region of Atascadero fare when the river flows bank to bank once again with the next 100-year storm. Many of you may still remember the homes next to Atascadero Creek that flooded in one of our very wet years.

I think the national news should have led off with something like, “California welcomes a soaking, and more rain is on the way.”

I remember one scene from a week or so ago where a homeowner, standing in front of his home covered with snow, nonchalantly said, “That’s what it does here in the winter, it snows.”

Our hillsides have turned light green almost overnight.

This rain is a wonderful Christmas present that, hopefully, will be the gift that keeps on giving into the new year.

And TV anchors, don’t rain on my parade.

This story was originally published December 15, 2014 at 10:55 AM with the headline "Rain is good news, no matter what TV anchors might say."