Beating the Rainy Day Blues : Valley: Some jog in the downpour or play football in the mud. Others head for video stores and seek sunlight in tanning salons.

By TRACEY KAPLAN and JIM HERRON ZAMORA

Jan. 17, 1993 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITERS

Disc jockeys Saturday were playing “Riders of the Storm,” but rain-weary San Fernando Valley residents wished it was “Here Comes the Sun.”

Days of inclement weather grated on many sun-worshiping Valleyites.

“I was going crazy,” said Joanne Kramer, who normally jogs seven miles a day, pushing a stroller with her 4-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter around the Sepulveda Basin. On Saturday, she left the kids at home and got her first run in a week.

“I couldn’t take it anymore,” Kramer said. “I just had to get out and run. My kids are going crazy too. I don’t know what to do about them.”

“I hate it,” said Hratch Fronjian, a 21-year-old biology student at Cal State Northridge, as he ducked into a Chatsworth gym. “It really disrupts my lifestyle. You can’t play basketball outside or go shopping much because it’s too wet.”

But some found a way to bask in the sun, despite the rain.

“Business is very good,” said Sandra Aiani, a clerk at a Chatsworth tanning salon. “I can’t stand being pale, and neither can our customers.”

Further west, at the New Age bookstore Vision Quest in Canoga Park, where customers are warned their karma will suffer if their checks bounce, Mitta Wise was taking advantage of the brief break in the rainy weather to do some research.

“I’m listening to a self-hypnosis tape on past lives regression,” said Wise, 36, who is studying to become a hypnotherapist. “In my past lives, I was once a young woman at a big family gathering in the 1800s and another time a little boy named Mikhal.”

At the counter, store clerks shrugged off reports of flood warnings and continued wet weather.

“We have a lot of psychics in here--they’ll let us know if there are going to be any natural disasters,” said Rocky Berlier, a co-owner of the store.

John DeRise, 20, of North Hollywood, joined a handful of other people who were flying their radio-controlled model airplanes in the light rain at Woodley Avenue Park in Van Nuys.

“I’m an outdoor person. I get depressed when I’m inside,” said DeRise, a student at Valley College. “The only thing you can do inside is watch TV, and I get sick of that real fast.”

DeRise wrapped his hand-held radio controls with plastic but didn’t bother wearing a hat or raincoat himself. “It’s wet. It’s kind of nasty, but at least it’s not crowded out here,” he said. “Usually, this place is packed on weekends.”

Over at Warner Park in Woodland Hills, a group of employees from 20th Century Insurance engaged in some muddy male bonding, playing football on a soggy field. By game’s end, they were filthy, which was the whole point.

Others sought more conventional--and cleaner--entertainments.

“It’s good weather for sleeping,” said Janet Gardner, 32, a receptionist who stopped by a Canoga Park health food store to pick up some snacks.

At a Woodland Hills video and music store, John Gutierrez, 41, scanned the aisles for tapes to entertain his 11- and 7-year-old sons. “Seems like it’s pretty rented out. There’s not much left,” he said.

Before the rain resumed Saturday, Los Angeles parking enforcement officer Rosa Garcia handed out $20 tickets to illegally parked cars on Sherman Way.

“People think parking is a freebie when it rains, but it’s not,” said Garcia, clad from head to toe in a bright yellow rain suit. “We’re out here rain or shine, just like the postman.”

* MAIN STORY: A1