Dampened Spirits

In these dreary final days of the school holiday break, most kids have long since stopped playing with Christmas toys, have already seen “101 Dalmatians” and can’t stomach yet another board game.

It has rained for seven of the last eight days in Ventura County, prompting parents exhausted from dealing with their stir-crazy offspring to count the days until school resumes.

“That’s why I’m here spending an exorbitant amount of money,” said father of one, Roger Acord, as he exchanged the cabin fever of his Oxnard home for the cacophony of squealing children and beeping video games at Oxnard’s Lazerstar game center. “When you’re 8 years old, you can only stay inside so long . . . She can’t go out and play in the rain and I’ve already taken her to see ‘101 Dalmatians’ and all the other dumb movies.”

On Thursday, both children and adults searched for dry diversions as light rain fell monotonously on yet another numbingly gray day.

Bookstores filled with people lingering over coffee and magazines. Parents dumped hyper kids at mall movie theaters for a couple of hours of relief.

And it seemed everyone everywhere was dealing with a bad case of post-holiday blahs.

“Everybody’s in a bad mood,” said totally bummed skateboarder Zack Warren, 13, of Thousand Oaks, who along with a buddy had just been kicked out of a dry underground parking garage. “You can’t skateboard anywhere, so it’s boring.”

Robyn Phipps of Moorpark spoke for thousands of Ventura County parents as she strode through The Oaks mall in Thousand Oaks in hopes of tiring out her 7- and 8-year-old children after finding the pair wrestling on the floor at home earlier.

“I’m going crazy,” she said.

Parents might take some comfort from knowing that even the professionals find it a challenge to keep kids occupied in wet weather.

“They get a little bit antsy,” said Kim Finnegan, director of the Thousand Oaks Kindercare center. “This is when your creativity comes out.”

But parents whose creativity low the last few days of vacation are more likely to turn to a pizza parlor or game centers such as Discovery Time in Simi Valley or Lazerstar.

Attendance at the two game centers swells by as much as 50% during rainy weather, officials said.

“We love the rain,” Lazerstar manager Daryl Weinberg said. “The rain is great for our business. It’s very common for people to drop their kids off and go to the mall. We’ve kind of turned into a day-care center.”

Business should continue to be great through the weekend.

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Showers will linger through noon today and return again Saturday morning, said Jon Erdman, a meteorologist with Weather Data Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

Another system is expected to bring rain late Saturday and into Sunday morning.

The weather should improve--just in time for school Monday.

And while the gentle rains have yet to cause problems for flood-control officials, Ventura County hydrologist Dolores Taylor knows her daughter wouldn’t agree.

“This is misery rain,” said the grandmother of four, adding that she won’t offer her baby-sitting services. “They’re driving their mother nuts, thank God, not me.”

Correspondents Anne Louise Bannon and David Baker contributed to this story.

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County Rainfall

Here are rainfall figures from the Ventura County Flood Control Department for the 24-hour period ending at 5 p.m. Thursday. Oct. 1 is the beginning of the official rain year.

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Rainfall Rainfall Normal rainfall Location last 24 hours since Oct. 1 to date Camarillo 0.35 8.46 4.51 Casitas Dam 0.35 16.90 7.43 Casitas Rec. Center 0.43 15.31 7.65 Fillmore 0.51 12.93 6.40 Matilija Dam 0.20 19.42 8.03 Moorpark 0.35 9.03 4.69 Upper Ojai 0.12 16.71 6.90 Oxnard 0.51 8.67 4.46 Piru 0.12 9.42 5.28 Port Hueneme 0.55 7.67 4.47 Santa Paula 0.43 11.65 5.76 Simi Valley 0.28 8.61 4.45 Thousand Oaks 0.35 9.56 4.74 Ventura Govt. Center 0.24 9.86 4.95

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