The Daily Rant: Cheap Umbrellas

I haven't written much lately because I'm buried at work and am busy with summer vacation activities. Speaking of which, I recently returned from a vacation in a rainy climate. Rain is really annoying when you are not fully prepared for it, i.e., all you have (for your family to share) is a cheap and already-broken portable umbrella. You know, the type that bends, breaks, and tears immediately after purchase. We had a pink one that was an embarrassment. It really sucked.

As luck would have it, crappy, fragile, cheap, and unruly umbrellas are readily available in wet tourist spots and rain forest souvenir shops. We copped a pair of them and were feeling good about ourselves. For a very short while. Forty minutes to be exact. That is how long it took for Cheap Umbrella 1 to break.

Our original pink nightmare was tossed before Cheap Umbrella 1 failed, leaving us with only Cheap Umbrella 2 for protection. Thankfully, that one held up until our last rain-soaked day. Unfortunately, my kid left Cheap Umbrella 2 in the hotel lobby, and it was long gone before we realized it. So . . . we returned home umbrellaless.

This is how my quest for a new "high quality" umbrella began. I spent a fair amount of time researching a number of offerings, such as the various models from Shedrain, the stylistic and spendy options from Davek, the high tech innovations from Blunt, etc. Truth be told, I feel that any umbrella, regardless of cost, style, and technology, will eventually break, get lost, or fail. I haven't pulled the trigger on anything just yet, and I'm not sure if I will. Are there are any umbrella experts reading this post? If so, I welcome your suggestions!