Creek after a storm

Ten or twelve years ago, there was extensive flooding in Santa Barbara after heavy winter rains. We live across the street from a creek that overflowed its banks. We couldn't leave the house, as we were surrounded by two feet of water. Our neighbor, at the bottom of a slope, had a river running right through his house and out the back door. He pried off some fence boards so the water could continue through and not pool up in our property.

A few years later, Santa Barbara implemented a street sweeping program to capture all the debris that would normally flow into the storm drains and eventually cause flooding.

We all complained about being unable to park our cars on the street on certain days (hubby and I don't have any off-street parking or a garage), especially when we got one of those nasty green envelopes on our window -- a $40 parking ticket.

But we got used to it.

The creek across the street used to be filled with massive boulders that you could hear crashing and tumbling when the creek was running and full. The full creek used to be a dramatic scene; people from all over our neighborhood would walk over to watch it churn after a heavy rain.

Now the boulders sit in a pile on the other side of the park, and the creek flows freely. More like a babbling brook, even after a heavy rain. I miss the drama, but not the flooding. And the creek is still lovely to visit.