Rain, rain: Should it stay or should it go now?

One might think that someone accustomed to a very low frequency of rain throughout his life would have little to say on the matter compared to someone of an opposite background, but I do have some thoughts. It has been raining about all day here in Los Angeles, which is the obvious explanation for "Why rain, why now?". I suppose that most people don't experience it the way I do. Of course, if it happens when I'm inside, then it is the same. I hear it constantly and occasionally glance at the window. It substantially influences my mood and state of mind in a way that can be good or bad. Ideally I don't have to go out in it, but that isn't really practical.

Since I don't currently drive, I walk the short distances and take buses and trains for the long ones. Walking the streets of LA in the rain can be an arduous task. In North Hollywood, for example, long stretches of neighborhood streets have no sidewalk, and one must either trudge through mud and trash or take a chance walking on the margin of the street itself. The water tends to pool, and this is especially so at intersections. It feels like the Oregon Trail, where players face the decision of how to cross rivers with their wagons and gear. It's not so hard to evade the deepest part of a puddle during the day, but is pretty tough at night, when judging depth is challenging.

The subway line is unaffected by the rain, but surface trains can be fouled up in poor weather. By chance, I haven't yet experienced that problem. The buses are severely affected. I have stepped into water above my ankles running for a bus, and they are just at their filthiest when it's raining. What can you do?

Ordinarily, I would unconditionally declare a rainstorm a good thing, as it adds to the water table and feeds the flora and fauna while minimizing the risk of fire. With fires happening so frequently since the last rain, however, wide swaths of county forest have been utterly denuded and left at severe risk of generating mudslides. Probably that's just what has happened today. You just can't win.