Raingear Games

April Fool’s Day started early this week, like Monday-early and all the foolery started around my raincoat. For those of you who read my blog often, you know that I have a love/hate relationship with my red raincoat. Okay, so it’s mostly a hate relationship and the only smidge of love that I feel is when I am out in the snow racing around and playing, completely ignoring the raincoat. You get to see me in said raincoat through photographs and while I might look a bit miffed, you don’t really see how awful I find it. So, I dug around our photo album and found this shot:

We have a video of me on this day, but it’s not worth watching because I don’t move. Nope, I just stand their frozen wearing not only my raincoat, but those awful booties. Of course, we went out in the snow and I forgot all about them, but for the torturous 15 minutes before we headed out while everyone was gearing up for snow, I stood in this one spot and didn’t move. Wait, that’s not true…I shook. That’s moving I suppose.

You get the idea. The red raincoat is my albatross. It’s my nemesis. It’s what I live to avoid. So when Monday rolled around and the weather looked iffy and uncertain, I found myself cringing every time Gretchen passed by the hallway closet where the raincoat lives. Luckily on Monday, she just passed by the closet, pausing only long enough to give me a bit of a fright, but in the end, no raincoat!

Rosie and Tyson didn’t have to wear theirs either. Tyson is kind of like me — he’d rather wear his birthday suit than don the coat and while Rosie puts up a bit of a fit when the raincoat comes her way, she submits pretty easily. But whew, no coats and luckily no rain.

Of course, we had a hard time getting Rosie to behave for the photograph…

…but since I didn’t have to wear a raincoat, I didn’t mind Rosie’s naughtiness!

Tuesday raised my hackles. The closet opened this time and I watched Gretchen rummage through the basket and when she pulled out her rain pants, I ran upstairs to hide. I don’t know why I do that because upstairs is kind of a trap — there’s no where to run once I’m there and if the raincoat has to go on, then I’m easy pickins for Gretchen. But when I’m really, really worried I race upstairs and make every attempt to hide behind the bed. (As a puppy, I could fit under the bed so maybe those old instincts are at play only now I can’t fit under the bed and must find solace in trying to hide behind it!)

But despite the fact that Gretchen was all geared up – raincoat, rain pants, and waterproof boots — I didn’t have to wear the red nemesis. Whew! Rosie was relieved, too! We walked around looking for signs of spring hoping to ward off the evil spirits of rain. We found a few … trees and flowers and the interesting array of waterfowl at the lake.

Wednesday the wind whipped around and for that I was thankful. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, a stiff breeze in the Pacific Northwest is exactly what is needed to keep the rain away. Lucky for me, the stiff breeze stuck around for our entire work day and only diminished later in the day bringing in some showers on occasion. Once again, no rain gear for any of us.

Double whew!

Monty and Rosie were just as relieved as I was!

You know what’s coming, right? You know that that raincoat found it’s way out of the closet, right? You realize that the wind blew in a wet front that lasted all Wednesday night and when I heard the news on Thursday morning, I was certain my fate was sealed. Flood warnings were broadcast across the airwaves and despite the gusty winds, nothing was strong enough to blow the red coat back into the closet. Argh!

But…and this is big…I didn’t have to wear it! Instead, Gretchen tucked it into her backpack and there it stayed THE ENTIRE DAY! More wind, but no rain. I was feeling pretty darn lucky!

On top of which, Rosie and I got to go on a interesting walk (Genessee Park…somewhere Rosie’s never been and she liked it very much, thank you!) and I was able to block the uncomfortable memory of the rain coat from my curly brain for awhile.

Rosie didn’t have a clue that the raincoat was anywhere around…nope, she was solely focused on the lake and this “really big bird” flying by.

I had to inform her that it was a kayak (and I also threw in that I’d been kayaking before), which made her laugh.

And later, when Quillette showed up for a long weekend, I warned her about the need for raincoats. She just smiled and said, “Rubin, you need fur like mine! I never have to wear a raincoat!”

Lucky Q!

I was worried on Friday when the raincoat from Thursday was stuffed back into Gretchen’s backpack early in the morning and then, when I looked outside I cringed

Rain…not just any kind of rain, but the kind of rain that lasts all day and, though it doesn’t come down hard, it’s so constant that you can’t help but getting wet.

“Oh no!” I moaned quietly, “This doesn’t look good.”

And out the door we went…Quillette (in her built in rain suit), Gretchen (dressed head to toe in rain gear), and me. What was I wearing? Well, the title of this blog is the Rain Gear Games, so I don’t think I should tell you…

…but because I’m such a great guy, and because it all worked out for me in the end (sort of), the raincoat stayed in the backpack even though we eventually left the backpack at home, took no outside photos since the rain was crazy bad (sorry Rosie and Tyson!), and I was very happy especially when we all came back from our walks and took nice, warm naps…Q on the couch dreaming of treats!

And Monty found the bed in the kitchen were he crashed with his head of curls…

Where did I sleep? On the other couch, curled up with the down blanket until…yes, this is when the sort of comes in…Gretchen took me to the basement for A BATH! “Aren’t I wet enough?” I protested, but she insisted and only later did I find out why…I got to go SWIMMING at the pool!

Okay, I can hear you saying, “But you were wet all day. What made this water more enjoyable?”

Warmth, fetch, and massage…three simple reasons and a great way to end a dreary, dismal wet-weather day!

Have a great (and dry) weekend!

Rubin