It never rains in Southern California (???)

The writer of that song must have lived his life within a 50-mile radius of New York City. It's been raining in Southern California for DAYS now! With the usual flashfloods, mudslides, highway closures etc. that this normally desert climate suffers when alien weather patterns interrupt. Ann and I were checking the Weather Channel hourly yesterday to pick the right "window" for her to drive up to LA from Fallbrook in. The upside is that it'll be emerald green for at least a month or so till the hills revert to their normal brown.

I had a chance to attend Bel Air Presbyterian Church this past Sunday, where Mom and Dad attended for about 15 years before moving to Santa Barbara. Mom led the Bel Air Women's group for quite a few of those years, as well. They have since built a HUGE new sanctuary that can swallow up a 10-member praise band visually. You really have to know where to look to find the pastor and the "action" it's so spacious. I have been struck both there at the "family service" (mainly younger folk) and at Anglican churches in the UK how down-market people are dressing for church any more. "Come as you are" is now literally true. And the mega-churches (like Bel Air Pres) are very high-tech these days, as well. Many contemporary churches have screens that the words of praise songs (no more "hymns") are projected, but at Bel Air they even have animated backgrounds - a cloudscape that keeps changing, waves of the sea that crash against the rocks. I was beginning to feel a bit of plane sickness trying to read the words. But generally I was impressed with the quality of the musicianship and the representativeness of the congregation. Not a lot of old ladies in flowery hats, but lots and lots of the demographic middle: 20- to 40-year-olds.

Ann and I have been following the horror stories coming out of the Banda Aceh earthquake/tsunami - as most of you have, no doubt. I tried to express the "bright side" of this tragedy to people at a synagogue I was at in Burbank for a New Year's Eve celebration, saying that it was a good thing it happened BEFORE January 1, at least, since a lot of Americans are looking for last-minute charities to give to the end of a year. I'm afraid it came out sounding like I was grateful that the tsunami victims provided me with a good tax-deductible charity opportunity!