Red Umbrella In The Snow

Day 129: In the Pacific Northwest, if you carry an umbrella, it marks you as being from Somewhere Else (probably California), but a few years ago, I bought a cheap one specifically for a photo shoot. It hasn't been out of the closet since, deemed an ineffectual way to keep our particular breed of rain off you...you know, the kind of rain which comes down sideways and penetrates to the bone within a minute or two of starting, the kind of rain which arrives on Tuesday and doesn't leave for at least two weeks. True Pacific Northwesterners live in the full-body protection of Goretex.

So, unfamiliar with umbrellas as a species, I finally found the little button you push to open the beast. Whoosh! Up she went! I took the photo, and then while still outside in the cold, I started trying to figure out how to return it to the "closed" configuration. Much swearing ensued as I trapped pieces of my jacket in it, and had it refuse to lock into place because I'd passed some invisible point which re-engaged the "open" mechanism. As I got colder and colder (remember, I'm just recovering from pneumonia), I decided the prudent thing would be to take it indoors and work on it there. Even so, it took me almost twenty minutes to figure out how to clamp it between my knees so I could get all the little points back in the handle.