Watching storms start to form over America

[sovay]

Today I paid my taxes and buried my umbrella. It was free from the World Wildlife Foundation, but I expected it to last more than a month. Having already cracked from the stress of the wind on my way to the post office, it snapped in half and blew inside out as I walked back from my dentist's appointment. After that it was a beautiful piece of conceptual art and absolutely no use at keeping off the rain: I gave it a state funeral in the trash can outside the Au Bon Pain on Cambridge Street. It had a wooden shaft, black metal struts, and a blue-and-white design of pandas. I felt bad for the pandas, but I think "decorative" is the least endangered species. I am told it's going to snow tonight.

ALL RIGHT, NEW ENGLAND, YOU CAN STOP NOW.

Comments

[rinue]

The wind was certainly something today. My respects to your departed umbrella, long may it be remembered.

[sovay]

My respects to your departed umbrella, long may it be remembered.

Thank you. It was dramatic-looking enough that I would have taken a picture if I had a camera, but you will have to believe me that it came out at several right angles to itself. I have a completely unjustified hope that some found-object artist (with a functioning umbrella!) came along after me and took it home to be part of an abstract sculpture.

[phi]

I've given up on carrying an umbrella after the winter when I lost four of them to wind damage.

I saw the snow last night! And spluttered in furious confusion at it!

[sovay]

I saw the snow last night! And spluttered in furious confusion at it!

There's still some sticking in our yard today! I know it can't be the latest snowfall recorded in Massachusetts, but I feel it may be the latest in my lifetime. Even the April Fool's Day Blizzard in 1997 was just that.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Ahh, that Au Bon Pain!

Man.

I have so many memories of that ugly complex. So many.

But was it a good final resting place for a panda umbrella?

And will you commemorate the umbrella 40 days from now?

YES NEW ENGLAND, PLEASE DO.

[sovay]

I have so many memories of that ugly complex. So many.

May I ask?

But was it a good final resting place for a panda umbrella?

Well, I genuinely wasn't sure I could take it home with me. It was bent at several right angles to itself. I had visions of not being able to fit it in between commuters and having to abandon it on the platform and then feeling terrible for littering on top of not having an umbrella. And as it turned out when I got to the Charles/MGH platform, it was a very crowded train.

And will you commemorate the umbrella 40 days from now?

If it's stopped raining by then! I'm beginning to have my doubts!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

May I ask

I misled by using the adjective ugly. Most are very innocuous and involve all the different people whom I've eaten with at Au Bon Pain, at different points in my life--but also looking at (and using) the display case of the Cambridge Savings Bank (if that's even still there?), and using UHS.

--I'll email you the one exception

[ron_newman]

I think your Au Bon Pain (in Harvard Square) is different from the one sovay abandoned her umbrella at.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

You are RIGHT! Damn my careless reading!

sovay I am such an idiot -__- Thanks for your patience.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

I preserved my umbrella by the simple expedient of downfurling it and getting soaked. The longest-lasting umbrella I ever had was the cheapest and ugliest: a seventies atrocity ringed in chartreuse, Tang orange, electric violet, and hippo-shit brown. Had that for over 30 years. Couldn't lose it, couldn't break it, couldn't wear it out. Until one day, I opened it and every rib and joint and strut in it disarticulated, and it fell apart, like the Deacon's masterpiece.

The nice ones go first.

Nine

[sovay]

Until one day, I opened it and every rib and joint and strut in it disarticulated, and it fell apart, like the Deacon's masterpiece.

The greatest umbrella story of my personal experience belongs to a high school friend of mine named Steve, who was part of the concert choir and jazz band's trip to England and France in April 1999. It rained a lot on that trip. Steve's umbrella began to die in Rouen. Struts caved in. Panels began to flap. Two days later in Paris it gave up the ghost while a group of us were out walking—in the rain, naturally—necessitating Steve to dash out of sight to replace it. He returned with a gigantic montrosity in pastel pink and purple flowers which almost labeled itself in superfluous neon, "Hello, I was the first umbrella in sight."

It kept him dry for the rest of the trip, though. So it was cool.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

"Hello, I was the first umbrella in sight."

Awww. They met cute.

Nine

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

If we were anywhere near you, Martin would have skinned your umbrella and added it to the collection of brollyhides for the motley sou'wester he's currently not making.

*sends you some spring with this*

[sovay]

If we were anywhere near you, Martin would have skinned your umbrella and added it to the collection of brollyhides for the motley sou'wester he's currently not making.

Please tell Martin that is awesome

*sends you some spring with this*

It's sunny today! Beautifully so! And cold and windy and there's still snow in the shadows! One of these things is not like the others, especially if the thing is mid-April!

[beowabbit]

I mourn the loss of your umbrella. May it rest in peace.

[sovay]

I mourn the loss of your umbrella. May it rest in peace.

Thank you. It fell to a noble adversary, or at least a completely ridiculous one at this time of year.

(Nice icon.)

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

That's too bad about the umbrella. They always make for a very frustrating sort of conceptual art, even when it's a rainy windy day in a major city and the rubbish bins become tight packed umbrella necropoles* which might actually be rather aesthetic if one weren't at that very moment being bombarded by water performing its very best impression of several thousand gross of shoemaker's knives.

I felt bad for the pandas, but I think "decorative" is the least endangered species.

Good point!

I am told it's going to snow tonight.

Did it? It dropped thirty degress between seven and eleven PM here, and turned from sleet to snow around when I got home from sessioning in Hamden. The yard was still mostly coveredd at noon, and patches of snow in the shade made it through the day.

ALL RIGHT, NEW ENGLAND, YOU CAN STOP NOW.

Word.

*Or should I say necropoleis?

[sovay]

The yard was still mostly covered at noon, and patches of snow in the shade made it through the day.

We had something of the same. It badly confused the white squirrel.