Wednesday, June 20, 2007

A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall


It is pouring outside.

I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to get to work and not look like a drowned rat. I have my trusty Canadian Gortex Taiga but that only keeps my upper half dry (as you can see here to the right).

My only long coat is a wool winter coat and the temperature according to Yahoo is 14 degrees so too warm to bring out the wool.

I could take a cab but that just seems to be the lame way out. I could take the underground but by the time I walk to the station to catch the train, and then walk from the station to the office, I'm still wet.

What about an umbrella you may ask? Useless here because of the gusty wind, blows them inside out within the first 2 blocks.

I normally wouldn't care about showing up to the office a little on the damp side but I'm hosting a visitor from one of our offices down south so it's important to look professional (i.e. I'll be wearing a skirt and heels rather than trousers and my Doc Martins) and preferably not soggy.

Maybe I will take a cab or a bus. I'll have to let you know. I guess I'll need to do some shopping this weekend.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're truly blessed.

Here in Alabama, we're in the worst drought in many decades (possibly in recorded history.) I think it was 20 inches short last I heard.

The last few days there have been some showers, and it's pretty amazing to see how excited people get. The walk in drenched and happily exclaim "it's raining!"

Enjoy it!

Anonymous said...

I hope you didn't get too wet. In my mind there aren't many things in this world worse than wearing wet denim on a warm day.

Anonymous said...

Why not take a page out of the biker's handbook and get a nylon/waterproof jumpsuit? You could carry your 'dress clothes' in a bag to change into when you get to work... it works in Vancouver.

D J E and M Huber said...

So, back in the 'Couv, I got sick and tired of cheapo umbrellas popping in the storms of January. So, I purchased what my labmates alternately referred to as "an SUV of umbrellas" or, simply, "obscene". Of course, they were just jealous.

I still own the thing. It is wider than an average sidewalk (lots of coverage), it has a carbon fiber shaft (virtually unbreakable under crazy conditions), and the umbrella part is made of two overlapping circles of cloth with venting and spring action, so even the harshest wind just opens up the smaller circle to let the pressure through, then the springy metal pieces pull it back again. I went through some crazy wind/rain storms with that on my walks around UBC, and it never popped - while all around me everyone else was facing umbrella devastation.

Anyhow, you might want to find something similar there. It's, frankly, the best umbrella I could ever own.

Squirmy Popple said...

I got soaked today just walking from the subway station to my office, and I was using an umbrella! The horizontal Scottish rain is impossible.

Chris said...

Well reporting back.

I opted to wear my long wool winter coat and black cap with my hair twisted and tucked up underneath, and my red boots (yes those red boots) on my feet.

I arrived at the office only mildly damp. There's just a wee opening at the bottom of my coat when you walk so part of my skirt was wet but it dried fairly quickly. As my boots (yes those red boots) are vinyl my feet stayed dry.

Had dinner with a colleague and he insisted that I hop in his cab and he dropped me off before he headed back to the airport. So I didn't need to walk home in the rain.

Chivalry is not dead.

Jamie said...

Come and visit South Florida: you get very high temperatures and all of a sudden... in a span of maybe 5 minutes you get the strongest rain and then it clears out. Only in Miami...

Peggy said...

Nothing holds the chill of death like wet jeans!

If you have to go out in the rain, wear a skirt, seriously. It saves having wet calves for most of the day. I have learned that in rain like this, umbrellas only keep your head dry.

Miss Scarlet said...

Yeah it's so tough to stay protected from the rain when its warm out.