I woke up this morning to a Weather Alert--heavy flooding expected along with the rainstorm. OK, I said, let's pull back the bedroom curtains and check it out.

Bright sunshine, blue sky with wispy clouds, zephyr winds. Sometimes I wonder what the weather forecasters have been drinking in their coffee or smoking in their pipes.

Traditionally, this time of year is, at the worst, cool and damp. I know of only one year in recent memory when it has rained on the Rose Bowl Parade held on New Year's Day. That was the year I worked as a coffee vendor serving the folks waiting for the parade to begin. And even that rain was only enough to get you wet and miserable and then it stopped.

I am convinced that the high population in Southern California is due to the televising of the Rose Bowl Parade. Everyone sees the gorgeous weather, bright sunshine in the middle of winter and wants to move here. If it hadn't been for the Parade, I'd be living nowadays in the middle of an orange grove, across the street from the bean fields.