Carmageddon and Other Ridiculous Californian Notions

There are these moments that makes me shake my head and completely embarrassed to be a Southern California resident. Oh there are so many, like when we elected Arnold Schwarzenegger to be the Governator, I mean even Gary Coleman ran in that recall election as well as Angelyne. If you don’t know who she is, she starred in such movies as “Earth Girls are Easy” and “The Angelyne Dream Experience”.

Another one of those only in LA moment is when it rains, and truly it does not rain often, but the weather forecasters go straight into panic mode. A little sprinkle will prompt the following phrase: “Storm Watch” ...It’s not a storm, it’s barely a sprinkle, we don’t need to call out the coast guard. Granted a couple of times in the winter it will rain heavily (especially if it’s an El Niño year), and when it rains a lot there are mud slides, it was so bad one year the engines of a lot cars were flooded, but this is not the norm. My question is: knowing that your home was located in a Canyon that is prone to mudslides, why would you rebuild there? And to add to the madness sundae is this crazy cherry on top: it is very expensive to buy a home in these areas and they are very secluded and I suppose that exclusivity adds to their allure. I think it’s the Hollywood effect: everyone wants to think their special, so they think that they need to buy a house where no one can reach the. This is not a good idea when you live  in an area prone to mudslides and did I mention brush fires? Because if no one can reach you, then that no one includes firemen and police officers. I think it’s completely illogical... But whatever, I guess that's why I live on the beach... At sea level.

However the pièce de résistance is happening tonight... Did you hear that, TONIGHT! This weekend the California natives are in rare form, their ridiculousness is in complete and total overdrive because... Are you ready for it? [cue ominous music] ten miles of the 405 will shut down for a whole 53 hours!!!

Now I know it’s annoying and it’s an inconvenience, but do we really need to call it Carmageddon? And my local public broadcasting station has created this program which documents the fears of what chaos may happen. The 405 is always jammed, even on the weekend, which is why I don’t head over to Santa Monica more often. And yes there will probably be some problems, but we’ll just have to deal with them. Is this an armageddon type situation, can we refer to it as an end-of-the world scenario, is this good versus evil, umm… no! 

The closures are from the 10 to the 101, which just means don’t head over to Santa Monica. Most people will take alternate routes, and those probably will be a little more congested, but it’s not going to kill us to go somewhere else, or spend some time at home. My assumption is that the media is making a bigger deal of it than it is, classic LA. Everyone calm down, there is really no need to panic... I think.

Oh and just in case you think I’m being overly dramatic, here’s that program trailer. Oh yeah, I’m totally serious.