I went out on errands yesterday and forgot to bring any form of head cover. It was middling to slightly drizzly so I just had permanently wet hair the entire time. There are a lot of covered walkways in San Francisco, especially on my walk, down Columbus to the Embarcadero centers, which are all covered. The problem really are those huge, large umbrellas that petit women seem to always have. The little points of the umbrella are right at the range of my eyes. The women have to walk super slowly, since they have to navigate some kind of space for their 5-foot span umbrella. On Columbus Ave sidewalks there’s just not enough room for the umbrella.
The large umbrella span reminds me of just that weird selfish territory thing that seems distinctly American. Yes, I am making grand generalizations about a culture, shoot me. There just isn’t a lot of cooperative, friendliness towards others in walking around with a 5-foot span umbrella. You’re hogging the sidewalk, and you’re too short to allow people under your canopy.
Walking down the Columbus sidewalk is kind of funny in the rain. Poeple have to stop constantly to let you by, they tilt their umbrellas to the side, and all the while, we are covered by awnings, so you can just wrap up that umbrella and use it as a cane, which is a much better use anyway.
And this leads me into other annoying rain behavior: drying your umbrella, open, indoors, in a walkway/door entrance/high foot traffic area, etc. I’m not a huge fan of umbrellas, but I will use them when I don’t want to suffer that deafness that goes with wearing a goretex hood. And can we say there are a million superstitions against opening an umbrella indoors. The most important of which is somewhat grounded in fact, it’s a big awkward thing that should be left outside.
Another favorite pet peeve while I’m at it: meaningless hygiene protection.
– those cotton face masks everyone wore in China. No, they won’t keep anything bad out, but if you stop burning charcoal brickettes in your house, and get low-emission cars, that might help.
– the allover plastic stroller cover that young mothers in the mission insist on putting around their babies. Unfortunately, TB will still get in there, despite the baby in a bubble.