El Nino: Day 2

By Ed Piper

"The rain fell on the earth 40 days and 40 nights." Genesis 7:12

I'm writing this as the rain has been falling for over an hour--starting at about noon--on Day Two of El Nino rains in San Diego. The intersections at Linda Vista and Morena and elsewhere are inundated with water. Driving up Linda Vista Road past USD, I saw the gutters flowing down the sloping street with lots of water.

Revision to sports coverage plans this afternoon: Drive to Coggan Pool to interview seniors on the girls water polo team at 2:30: Nixed.

Take photos of girls soccer game at Clairemont at 4 p.m.: Nixed.

Revised plan: Try for boys basketball league opener at Cathedral at 5:15. One event of three. Seems wiser with flooding only bound to increase as the afternoon proceeds.

Ducks do what they're named for, I observed at the San Diego River channel off Friars Road: They duck. Some got into the water in a single file and moved along. Others remained on the dirt exposed at low tide. They kept their heads down, for the most part. Very smart.

But they didn't duck and (fly to) cover. They just ducked.

Egrets are much more exposed. They are longer, as basketball fans would say of their players. So the pure-white birds stand up much higher. One out in the river water--again, low tide--stayed pretty stationary, not moving much. A whole flock of egrets nearby stayed rooted in the reeds, long necks telescoped to shorter length, hunched over to protect themselves against the rain and wind.

Regarding humans and sports (since this is a sports-oriented blog), some avoid the rain--I'm thinking basketball, baseball, softball--and some go ahead and play--water polo (Coach Keller Felt said they were going to practice in the rain, unless lightning flashed), soccer (I'm sure ditto unless there's lightning at the game at Clairemont), football.

Field hockey--I don't think they would play, but I don't know. Lacrosse, I think they play no matter what (lightning being the restrictor).

I remember playing basketball in the rain 35-plus years ago, when I still played. I had great ball-handling, because the (rubber, not leather) ball stuck to our hands really well. You can break an ankle sliding, but we didn't. I did end up with a horrendous case of the flu, which I gave to everyone in my family of origin, so they let me know of their displeasure over that.

Which reminds me of playing basketball at Chico State (I didn't make the college team, so I played intramurals) on sand. This wasn't an official game, obviously. We all passed the word that we were going to play at a local elementary school, with eight-foot baskets. The court wasn't swept--we didn't have a broom.

We went ahead and played. There were a lot of guys 6'5", my height, and around there. We decided anything goes: goal-tending rules were waived. We had a blast with alley oop's and smashing shots away if the opponent shot too far out, allowing us to position ourselves near the basket and swat the ball.

A good time had by all. No one snapped an ankle on the sand. Luckily.

I hear the El Nino rain on our skylight, now 1:38 p.m., still pounding.