Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Death of an Umbrella

I remember waaaaay back, I saved up $22 to buy my mom a mother's day present. At the time, that was a huge sum of money for me... my allowance was $1 per week, and jobs like mowing the lawn earned me $5. My dad took me to Sears, and we looked for something I could buy her. I found a beautiful collapsing umbrella. It was peach with little white flowers. It was absolutely gorgeous. It is still functional today. A bit grimy, but still functional.

Last term I bought a light blue, collapsable, UNC umbrella at student stores when I got caught in the rain near there without an umbrella. As fortune had it, by the time I was out of the store, the rain had passed. I can't remember if I used it between then and today. It's my back-up umbrella, so I usually had a larger one when it rained.

The pollen has been building up here. The past few days have been warm and sunny, encouraging the trees to have wanton sex. I spent a fair amount of time yesterday trying to convince my eyes not to itch.

This morning, it was cooler, and the forecast said 80% chance of rain. It looked like rain. So I waited a bit to see if it might rain before I went in to school. It didn't. It got sunnier. I was very disappointed.

When I came out of the department to go to SNB, everything had a definite yellow cast from the pollen.

SNB was fun again tonight. I showed off my knitting, and I demonstrated spinning. I think I may have convinced a few more people to "give it a whirl". ;)

Just as SNB was coming to an end, and I had to go catch the bus, we noticed it was raining. Finally! Air cleaning rain! I was so happy. When I left the building, the rain was only a fine drizzle. It wasn't *really* worth an umbrella, but I didn't feel like getting damp, so I pulled out my UNC umbrella. (I got in the habit of carrying a small umbrella in my backpack when I lived in Manitoba. The weather is rather changeable there.) I took off the slip case, undid the velcro, and gave it a shake to open it. The handle extended, but the top didn't want to open. So I played with it. It still didn't want to open. Finally I get it to open a bit, only to discover that the top of the umbrella has broken off the post.

They don't make umbrellas like that old peach one I bought my mom.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Darn, I missed your spinning demonstration! Man, what a night to be absent from SNB. :)

I took the night off, hoping to A. Save a little cash by not eating at Foster's, and B. Clean the apartment in anticipation of my mother's impending visit on Thursday. Of course, I didn't get the cleaning done... Instead I planned for my semesterly teacher observation today (.ppt presentations and lesson plans, here I come!) and then loafed around.

Anyway, I'm sorry I missed the spinning!

noricum said...

Well, maybe I'll bring my spindle again sometime. ;)

Jewels said...

Hollllly cow, I was just RAOK'd with a Drop Spindle kit!! I'm so excited to try it,..it'll be my Sunday relax project, hopefully on my deck in the sunshine!
It rained so much here (I don't care, SPRING is HERE,..YES, HERE IN WINNIPEG!!), there was a Canada Goose swimming in the ditch by my house. Seriously, ..I've never seen that before!

noricum said...

Cool! Spinning is so neat! I'm not sure how long it will take me to get something I want to make something out of (and enough, too), but it's fascinating seeing the process!

Yay spring! Um, for you. I wish it were still winter. Or summer. But then, I'm not that fond of the hot, humid summers down here either. Hmmm... I'd be happy if it were just fall and Winter. ;)