Remember that “Is that rain?” Siri commercial with Zooey Deschanal?

I used to hate it and thought it was so stupid until I moved to Southern California where it rarely rains and found myself lying in bed one day asking, “What is that noise?” and it was, indeed, rain. I went from Florida where it rains almost every single day in the summer to LA where it rains maybe for a week or two collectively throughout the year. I’m not saying LA changed me, but I am saying that when I went to Hilton Head for a brief vacation one summer, I was shocked at how lush and green things were. Oh, and also that I had forgotten to pack my umbrella, something I never would have done before.

It also wasn’t until I moved here that I truly understood what people meant when they said a place “didn’t have the infrastructure” for things like snow or, well, rain apparently. The snow thing mostly makes sense, but not being prepared for rain didn’t even seem like a real thing until I moved here and realized that they literally do not have the infrastructure to handle rain. And I’m not talking the mudslides that you see on TV. No, I’m talking that stoplights go out when it rains (barely rains, if you ask me–it could be misting is what I’m saying). My friend’s street floods almost every time it rains because there isn’t proper drainage. I have gotten flash flood warning notifications sent to my phone when the expectation was for 1/2-inch of rain. 1/2 inch! Oh, and one time it rained and the power went out on the second floor of one of the school parking garages and it was out for a week.

They also only have one word for rain out here. If someone here says it’s raining that could just mean it’s overcast and barely drizzling. But no, everything is rain. No misting, no drizzling, no pouring, no sun showers, no monsoon-ing, no cats and dogs, no llamas and goats, etc. I always took for granted the various names of rain until my friend who is a native Californian asked me if it’s raining, and I said, “No” because no person in Florida or Maryland would call what was happening outside rain (it was barely misting), but then I realized she probably meant is there any type of water coming from the sky and/or in the air.

They also don’t go places if it’s raining (or “raining”). It’s understandable, to an extent, when it’s actually raining, but when it’s misting? Or drizzling? As a person who moved here from a place that if you used it’s raining as an excuse for not going anywhere, you would probably never leave your house during certain parts of the year, I truly did not understand. But I’m catching on.

Oh, and so many times I have only known it rained because the ground was wet outside.

Anyway, I mention all of that because it rained today, and the elevator in the parking garage at work is out. Normally, that wouldn’t impact me that much, but my knee still hurts and stairs are a problem. (I also am always concerned about our students and my colleagues with mobility issues when things like that happen.) Going up the stairs is okay, though still not ideal, but walking down stairs is a whole different issue. I called facilities to report the outage, but it wasn’t fixed when I left, which meant I had to go to the opposite end of the garage where there was only one flight of stairs so that it was less bothersome for my knee. It still hurt, but that was better than the three I would have taken on the other end.

But the fact that both sets of elevators was out meant it’s once again an infrastructure issue.

Also, RIP to D’Wayne Higgins from Tony! Toni! Toné! (the group that sings “It Never Rains [In Southern California]”) who died recently. Because of them, I found myself often saying “Wow, it really doesn’t rain in Southern California” when I first moved here and realized my trash cans would be sticky and gross all summer from the pollen and/or tree sap because of, you know, the lack of rain.

Drive safe out there, Southern Californians.