Since California has always been a magnet for immigrants, it shouldn't have surprised me that, over the years, so many of my closest relations—my sister, parents, ex-wife and son—migrated there from New York City, our home turf. Last September, the Golden State ensnared two more—my 24-year-old daughter and her new husband, an electrical construction journeyman.
If there's such a thing as geographic schadenfreude—in this case, the enjoyment of another state's troubles—I might view California's latest drought as payback for taking my family captive.