Rain Welcome but do we need so much at once?

In Southern California, we have been dealing with drought for several years now. I was used to my dead grass and watering my trees by hand so they'd survive. Now, late in an El Nino season, it has begun to rain. From our perspective, that's a wonderful thing, but do we need it all at once? The truth is, we'll take it however it comes.

Our rural street crosses a creek at one point. If you want to get to my house, you have to cross it. It's called an Arizona Crossing - a low-lying concrete structure that's designed to allow excess water to go over the bridge when there's too much to go under it.

Normally there is a bit of water going under the bridge. I don't know where it comes from. Sometimes the neighborhood children lay on their stomachs on on the bridge and fish for a kind of crawdad that lives here. Keep this picture in your mind while you watch the movie.

The place where the children like to lie and fish for crawdads is where you see the tiny waterfall on the left side of the road.

All that noise is from the rain falling on my umbrella. The movie begins with water flowing down my street and into the creek. The main flow of water is directly over the bridge.

Isn't that something? The water was flowing harder yesterday, but there is more water in the movies. The water coming up to the bridge is higher and deeper than the bridge itself.

I wish we could save every drop of it, but much of it just flows to the ocean.

Marilynne