Three Umbrella Day

This week in D.C. it's been raining like the dickens.

Soft and sprinkle-y at first and then sudden deluges. Although the Northern Virginia climate sees the least amount of storms in the whole state, the path of thunderstorms seems to follow Rte. 66 like an arrow.

Having to hoof it from the Metro and parts of D.C., it's important to pack an umbrella or two during the rainy season. I have a compact one that fits in my laptop bag and a cane umbrella that offers more protection from stronger rains and unwary pigeons.

I chose the cane umbrella for today's unpredictable gusts, but when I pressed the release button and gave it a little shake, the hollow metal tubing bent and the wooden handle snapped off! Now I had a fine top cover with no way to effectively hold it.

I pitched the cane umbrella in the trash and dug out the collapsible. It released fine, but half of the vanes were broken and wouldn't hold up the entire canopy. I limped along the street until I got to my building, then trashed the second umbrella.

Now, it's a proverb that you shouldn't buy an umbrella on a rainy day, since you'll get gouged, but what's a body to do when you go 0-2 on umbrellas in a single day? I settled on a cheap job from CVS to take me home in relative dryness, but I'll have to get a "real" one later.

My last and best umbrella when all else fails is a shapeless baseball hat stuffed in the bottom of my bag. At least it's not subject to structural integrity problems or "wardrobe malfunctions".