Pluie

It’s been raining so much I actually had to buy an umbrella. Not used to this at all, I was even a little worried when I ordered it that by the time it got to me it would be too late. (Serves me right for underestimating the fickleness of the meteorological marvel.) Not that I didn’t have an umbrella to use.

Until I bought the new one I was borrowing my mom’s. Actually, it’s so old that we’re not really sure which of us was the original owner. It’s a large lavender beauty with a white swan and swan’s head for the handle. It’s a Gloria Vanderbilt. I’m pretty sure it came free with a bottle of perfume back when I was a young teen and madly in love with the Vanderbilt fragrance.

It’s somewhat faded now, but holding up decently well. I don’t know exactly how much action it’s seen in the decades since it became part of our family, but I can imagine it never dreamed it would have to work as hard as it has lately. That’s why I decided to bring in a younger model. In our usually so-dry-it’s-never-not-in-a-drought state, an umbrella can feel decently comfortable knowing it will live a life of leisure -- the accessory version of a reality show star. The work expected from it amounts to little more than a public appearance a few days a year, during the jokingly referred-to rainy season. At least until now.

Our lovely but aging purple parapluie, who never dreamed of living in the Northwest, was simply not prepared for its weather to somehow make its way to us. I could almost feel it shudder each time I reached for the swan handle on my way out the door, cursing our collective watery fate (to be clear, I was the one doing the cursing, not the umbrella. I may be grumpy about the weather and whimsical in my anthropomorphizing but I’m not hearing things yet).

So, I consulted online stores (who wants to go out any more than necessary in crappy weather?), and after some searching found a happy new foul weather companion. His lovely clear bubble dome with a periwinkle stripe and matching handle is so lively and upbeat, it almost made me enjoy the rain. Peri now gleefully accompanies me on questionable weather days.  

And our beautiful grande dame can go back now to the quiet life of an occasional outing.