You’ve probably heard about the torrential rain and resultant floods and mudslides that have hit southern California the last week or so. I’m not trying to make fun of people’s misery, but this merely confirms what many current and ex-southern Californians have known all along -- there are only two seasons in SoCal: fire season and flood season.

In contrast, those of us in the northeast are still in the middle of winter and just today, we received six inches of new snow. A lot of times, after I meet people for the first time and mention to them that I grew up in SoCal, they usually ask me if I miss living there. I usually tell them that I certainly do not miss the traffic, congestion, pollution, high cost of living, and the generally higher levels of consumerism and materialism.

Then they ask, “But you probably miss the weather, right?” Then I usually reply, when the weather is sunny and warm, yes. But not when it’s raining and flooding all the time. In other words, if I had to choose between six inches of snow and six inches of rain, at this point, I’d stick with the snow.