Ululation For An Umbrella

Anyone aware of the author’s affections apprehends his aberrant attraction to any and all alliteration, above all in the appellations of articles. I did this for a pen. It is only fitting to eulogize another old friend. I first bought an umbrella all the way back in Fredericksburg. It was raining and I was unprepared, so I picked up a cheap one that did the job. And then one day I looked up and realized that I had taken it to 80-ish counties so I decided to make it trackable. Unfortunately, that only lasted so long. After 114 counties, I left it on a bus while I was carless, and it never showed up in the lost and found. In the midst of my sadness and subsequent preparations for hari-kiri, I realized that the physical reality of the umbrella was far less important than its symbolic nature. So I got a new (and most certainly superior) umbrella and the adventures continued!

I finished the Texas County Challenge with it, and did the New Mexico and Oklahoma County Challenges with it, too. I took it to Indiana, and Wyoming, and Arizona, among other places. It went to four Megas and a lot of counties. A whole lot of them, 443 in total. Unfortunately, it will travel with me no more. Somewhere, I put it down and failed to pick it up, I know neither where nor when, sometime after I returned from Colorado. I tend to be a little sentimental about some things to begin with, but I’m not joking when I call it an old friend. I loved that umbrella. But it was only a thing and can be replaced. The bad news is that the company that made it isn’t making that model anymore.

The good news is that I found a perfectly cromulent substitute! Unfortunately, I don’t get a wooden handle, but otherwise it’s great! It served me well in Louisiana, and I look forward to visiting many more counties with it. Welcome to the party, little buddy! Let’s go on an adventure! Le parapluie est mort! Vive la parapluie!