Thursday, January 21, 2010

One More For The Road

Last night would have been a great night for storm news.  After all, about a thousand homes had been evacuated in the La Canada - Montrose - Glendale - Tujunga areas because of the extreme threat of debris slides.  Debris slides are much more dangerous than mud slides.  Mud slides contain - well - mud and water.  Debris slides contain mud and water and refrigerators and old couches and hub caps and dish washers and fences and all the houses already ripped from their foundations by the growing pile of wet debris.  It's a pretty serious thing and people are wise to leave their homes while the can.  So last night would have been a really good night for an update on these very real threats.  The Channel 9 news almost provided said updates except that after about two minutes of news the station found out about a car chase.  For the rest of the hour we watched - were mesmerized by - Larry Welk saying things like, "Look.  He's making a right turn.  That is so dangerous."  First the person driving the car was a woman who had just killed her abusive husband.  Then the driver of the car turned out to be a man who was upset about something and was trying to get to the home of his mother so he could surrender.
Meanwhile homes and grand pianos and discarded dreams are oozing down the canyons above our home.
And why didn't I just switch to another channel you might reasonably ask.
I didn't switch to another channel because what if the driver of the car being chased made another unsafe right turn?  Or what if he/she/it made a left turn?
Here's the thing.  This is Southern California where nothing and I mean nothing is more important than how we get from one place to another by car.  And nothing captivates our imagination quite like the car chase.
So I went forth into this good day clueless about ther weather.  That's okay.  At least I got to watch the chase and listen to Larry Welk tell me what I so clearly saw with my own eyes.
Life is good.

2 comments:

Cam G. said...

You know, I never watch the late "news". But I had it on the other night, perhaps like you, looking for weather news. And like you, I watched the stupid chase and listened to the play-by-play. Do these helicopter guys actually have scripts at the ready? How can they estimate the rate of speed of a car on the ground from a helicopter in the sky? And why do any of use care? It's not like it's OJ Simpson or something!

MaryWalkerBaron said...

Couldn't agree more. Thanks for the comment.