February 25, 2009
Leonard Cohen has his Blue Raincoat; I have my Red one!
Gretchen listens to a lot of music when she’s working on her freelance writing job. Classical music in the mornings, folk at lunch, and then, when it’s time to clean up or cook, she pumps up the Earth, Wind, and Fire or Sly and the Family Stone. The other day at lunch, I heard Jennifer Warnes sing Leonard Cohen’s classic The Blue Raincoat and I heard this…
“I guess that I miss you, I guess I forgive you
I’m glad you stood in my way.”
I immediately thought of my red raincoat.
Today, I had to don my despised red raincoat because, as you can tell from the picture (that was a dud, but demonstrates the rainy weather we’re experiencing) it rained buckets and buckets today. When Gretchen put the coat on me, I sang the above lyrics in my head to that despised red raincoat. She kept me warm, though and she kept me relatively dry, so I have to forgive her. But that doesn’t mean I’ll like her tomorrow!
It was not so busy today as many of our clients moved their appointments to yesterday clearing 
our schedule today. We started the day with a spunky Perrito and a reluctant Oshi. That’s because of the rain. For Perrito, it turned his long hair into a mop and he gleefully rain around the tennis courts soaking up the water!
Oshi, on the other hand, cowered and shook. Gretchen kept him on the leash and walked around the courts making sure Oshi got some exercise. He was not the least bit happy. I offered my red raincoat, but neither Gretchen nor Oshi thought that was a good idea.
Oshi was constantly complaining…”Can we go home now?” He gave us all the evil eye and pulled his leash to its maximum length angling for the door out of the courts and back on the path to home.
By the time we got them home, they were soggy doggies and it took quite awhile to dry them off. Since Oshi and Perrito live next door, we often see Oshi standing on the table in the kitchen (yes, on the table) looking through the window into our window. The other day he actually barked at us begging for a walk. He wasn’t begging today, I can tell you that! Rather, he begged and begged to go home!
We headed to Gemma’s house after that and for a moment, the rain stopped. But just for a moment. Back to the tennis courts we went for a few photos, a few games of chase, and a few tosses of the ball. Gemma liked my red raincoat because it 1) let her see me better and 2) gave her something other than my ears to grab on to!
But that rain came right back and try as I might to encourage Gemma to rip off my raincoat, I was kind of glad I had it on when the clouds opened up again and blew heavy rain on us sideways. We ended up back at our house (Gretchen, Gemma, and me) whereupon Gemma and I wrestled and raced up and down the stairs in an indoor game of chase!
After Gemma went home and Gretchen went off to her part-time teaching job, I rested, warmed up, and sang my own version of The Red Raincoat!
Let’s hope tomorrow requires nothing more than my curly birthday suit!
Until then,
Rubin
