In which we're soaked

[widdertwin]

I saw a sign that I guess was supposed to keep people's spirits up during the mostly rainy months in Vancouver between September and September. It said "let a smile be your umbrella". I didn't really get much of a morale boost out of this. Firstly and most importantly, a facial expression does little to protect against forces of nature, even

Comments

[navigated]

I love everything about this post. Every word.

[widdertwin]

I'm so glad someone can relate.

[chronophobe]

You should come to Walla Walla. We have no such signs.

[widdertwin]

Yeah, but you have a silly name.

I thought about the smile being upside-down first, too

[why_gravity]

Hear, hear!
Besides that, I've never believed an umbrella was worth the free hand you don't get to use if you've got one. It's only /water/, and people get so worked up about it.
Why has it got to be rain that's the dreary part, anyway? What about those horrible, miserable days of blistering sun, when the reek of someone else's sweat is everywhere and you've got to take three showers a day lest you become one of those reeking bastards suffocating anyone in a three-foot radius?
I argue that the rainy season /is/ the nice weather, especially since the summer brings craploads of grinning morons and tourists out into the open... But as long as you don't need a fucking --smiling-- umbrella, right?

Re: I thought about the smile being upside-down first, too

[widdertwin]

I'm right there with you on the inconvenience of umbrellas. Even after my irrational umbrellaphobia disappeared, I resisted them on the principle that they're just damn annoying. Especially since at any given point in time, particularly when it's cold and rainy, I've already got a coffee in one hand and a cigarette in the other. But my resistance has gradually been eroded over the years, and while I only carry one grudgingly and in hard rain, I nevertheless own an umbrella. But mine's got an edge over most other umbrellas because it's got a strap. I can just sling it over my shoulder if I'm not using it so I don't have to waste any more precious hand-freedom. This comes along with the added bonus that, from a distance, I look like a praetor in some kind of oppressed military state with a submachine gun just hangin' out, between my backpack and my camera bag. (This never would have occurred to me if it hadn't been for a guy working at Mac's who mistook my umbrella for a rifle and panicked

Re: I thought about the smile being upside-down first, too

[why_gravity]

Okay, you've managed the only adequate umbrella-carrying excuse I've come across. The rifle thing really seals it.

As for sitting around the beach or Stanley Park with cheap wine and (in my case, a pocket-pipe) doobs, that is pretty what I do all year round. I've even claimed (with a surprisingly strong permanent marker) a specific rock to sit on between English Bay and Stanley Park, in one of the places where you can climb down to some rocks where people leave you the fuck alone. The nice thing about it being cold as fuck, particularly in the middle of the night, is that there's nobody around to worry about. Summer is a little harder for that.
Still, I suppose in summer I'm better off if I'd rather run off adventuring with a person instead of a playlist.