by Rob Sachs

I bought a new coat this winter that finally replaces the one I bought at Sears with my mother back when I was in high school. I loved that old coat even if it was really worn out and had a huge rip in it. My new coat is much better except for one thing, it doesn't have a hood. And that's a problem because even when clouds are gray I've long abandoned the idea of bringing an umbrella to work. In the rare event I remember to take one with me, I inevitably lose it at some point in the day. Sometimes I get the feeling I'm just the victim of umbrella theft but I haven't been able to prove that so far.

I didn't think this would be a big deal until earlier this week when I made the decision to walk out for lunch in the rain (it wasn't just drizzling, it was POURING).

I was drenched to the point where my pants where soaked, and my head was dripping wet. Now I might not mind this if I was, say, out on a romantic date where being deluged would add this cool drama to things, like in this scene in the movie "The Notebook."

Yeah, that's right I liked that movie. But in the office, being completely wet from head to toe is not so cool. I had no hair dryer, so what did I do? I have a small fan in my office so I tried without much success to dry myself off with it. I wound up just being soggy the rest of the afternoon. I think next time it pours, instead of trying to remember an umbrella, I'll just try remember to pack my lunch.