It’s a rainy Monday… and I am late.

It took me a painstaking 45 minutes to reach the Clinic which is only a 12-miles stretch.  I normally take same route using side streets in 15 to 20 minutes, traffic and stop lights included.

But this morning, arrrgh!

It’s weird driving in California on a rainy day.  Most Californians drive very very very slow when the rain pours… which is good— but crazy good.  What they called as storm in California, is only a shower in the Philippines.  I am used to the weather, I weathered the rain and the storm in the Philippines driving the same way I drive on a sunny day.

The fact is… Californian driver cannot handle the rain, for years that I lived in California, that made me one of them LOL. 

“The inability of California drivers to handle the rain is legendary: From San Francisco to L.A., there’s no better way to majorly screw up a commute than by throwing in some drizzle.” (bloomberg.com)

“Californians tailgate too much; they’re so used to drought they’ve forgotten how to drive in rain; the state’s arid weather causes copious build-ups of roadway oil, creating slippery, hazardous surfaces when the drops start falling.” (bloomberg.com)

The worst storm I handled so far was in Georgia… it was all sunny with clear blue skies when we drove going to Atlanta from Augusta.  But boy!  Thirty miles before reaching Augusta back in the afternoon, it started to rain, and it kept pouring and pouring…. like cats and dogs,  I cannot see the road ahead, it was zero visibility and my hands on the steering wheel started to sweat.  I sweat in the driver’s seat like I never had before even on a Las Vegas summer temperature!  I was tempted to pull over, but to where?  I thought what if –the next driver will not see me?  And a lot of my what ifs… My passengers were extremely quiet, I could only hear my self cursing, but shaky-cursing.

It was a good 10-miles zero visibility drive.  And whew!  I was able to deliver CiCi and Ande and myself in our Augusta Hotel without causing any accident.

Rain gently falls whenever we say goodnight
Falling like when you’re out of sight
Rain follows me even in my bed
And rain is the tears that I shed

G.