There's no window in my office, so I never know what the weather is like. There is a window in the hallway near the elevator, though. This gives you a preview of what you will encounter when you get downstairs. As I was leaving the other day, I noticed a rainbow through the window. The chance of rain was supposed to be "less than 20%," and that was probably an accurate forecast, because seeing a rainbow means that it is sunny all around town, but raining cats and dogs at your particular location.
I went on down and waited for it to let up a bit. When I thought it was safe, I made a run for it.
Now, if you are someone's mother, you're thinking "You shouldn't do that! You might slip and fall and break your neck!"
Let me assure you that this will not happen. I have never slipped on wet asphalt, and I think that I'm sure footed enough that I can tell how well my feet are planted.
What you really ought to worry about is what happens when I wear new "dress shoes." You men out there know what I'm talking about. We have very good shoes these days. They have modern composite soles, shed water well, absorb shock -- everything you'd expect of a good tire.
But you can't wear these with a suit. 18th century clothes demand 18th century shoes, and 18th century shoes, when new, have hard, slick soles. I have slipped in new dress shoes, but never because of rain.
I ran because I was trying to avoid getting soaked.
I hate being soaking wet while fully clothed. The least fun I had on our vacation last summer in Palo Duro Canyon was being stuck outside in that desert in the pouring rain, trying to keep the screen-room on my brother's pop-up camper from blowing away. (My canopy had already blown down, so there was no point in standing in the rain over there.)
This is also why I don't ride the "Bamboo Chute" at Astroworld anymore. Somewhere along the way, I figured out that I don't have to be miserable to have fun. My job, when it comes time to venture over to "Oriental Corner," is to operate the camcorder.
My question is whether running through the rain actually does any good. The object is to come into contact with less water. It seems to make sense that the less time you spend in the rain, the less wet you ought to get.
I think that's bad logic. Distance must be the real key to how wet you get.
That's why you have to turn your windshield wipers on "high" when you are on the highway, then you slow them to intermittent as you get to the traffic jam.
See, the amount of water between you and your car, waaaaay across the parking lot, remains constant. You still have to pass through just as much rain, and running only means that you collect the water faster.
Some people must get wet at the same rate regardless of speed, though. I know this because I see them on the freeway in the traffic jam. At this point, I'm not getting very wet, and I have the windshield wipers making a swipe about every 15 seconds.
The person in front of me must be in a downpour, because their wipers are still on high.
That guy can probably even see a rainbow.
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