Friday, January 07, 2011

These Boots Were Made For...

...SPLASHING!

The December storm at the ranch had turned my uggs into mud-caked messes so it was time to go and find some rubber boots. Shall it be long waders? Or heavy duty utilitarian boots? Or something cute and fun?

Economics determined the choice for me: a pair of really inexpensive rain boots. Made in China, natch. But I'm hoping they'll at least last me the season.

I don't know why I haven't had/worn any rain boots-galoshes-wellingtons-wellies-rubbers in four-plus decades. They're too much fun, I thought, splashing through the rain-darkened streets of West Los Angeles. In Tokyo, the only people I've seen in rubber boots were school children, fishmongers, ancient farm women carrying massive basketloads of produce into the city on the early morning train... The rest of us walked in soggy misery. I wished I had ignored convention and gotten some boots for all those rainy seasons, winter storms, summer typhoons. Japan is a wet country!

Now back at the ranch, I find that these boots were also made for sloshing and sliding around in the mud. Unlike El Rojo, our little electric car that I promptly got stuck in fine, slick, clayish mud in front of our busted up greenhouse.

Yes, the same New Year's storm system that had me wading through West LA tore apart our little greenhouse. The plastic panels had been blown all over the place and the aluminum frame was wrenched apart in places. Plants were dead or dying. What a mess. And now an electric car stuck up to its axle in muck.

But my boots, muddied as they are, look completely unperturbed. Yay for elastic hydrocarbon polymer!

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