An unexpected and delightful side effect of the recent heavy rains has been that the Kern River actually now has water in it...
Like a river!
With water!
Here's what the "river" normally looks like...
A trash filled gutter running right through the center of town.
And here's what it looks like this week...
You can almost hear the steamboats, can't you?!?
I had to steal the "after" images from the web. If you think texting while driving is dangerous you should try framing an iPhone photo through your passenger window going 45mph.
The experts tell us not to get used to it. It will be dry again soon enough. But for a few days or weeks everyone will get a tantalizing look at what once was and could've been.
Which brings us to a first for this blog... an apology to the City of Bakersfield!
Don't get used to it - I don't see many more of these in the future, if ever.
In looking for the photos yesterday I came across a fairly succinct history of the tragic end of the Kern River. I had just assumed that the City of Bakersfield had somehow fucked it up. If you lived here you'd know that isn't a stretch of the imagination. But it turns out poor little ole' Bako is a victim.
A victim of (*dum*dum*DUM*)... Powerful Ag Interests.
If it's not the Evil Oil Companies, it's the Powerful Ag Interests. They're like the Bond Super Villains of the Central Valley.
At any rate, Bako had it's water stolen right out from under it's nose. Not hard to do I would imagine, but sad nonetheless.
If you want to read the sordid details they can be found here.
So, to Bakersfield, "mea culpa, mea máxima culpa."
