I wish I could have got it on film. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera ready, and even if I did it just wouldn’t have translated to film. Better that I paint the picture with words.
Close your eyes and imagine this:
Oops! You’re reading this. Closing your eyes won’t work will it?
Of course most of you figured that out, so we’ll just wait a minute for my sister Liz and her daughter Cassie to figure that out and open their eyes... it’ll just be a minute now… okay welcome back Liz, and it looks like Cassie fell asleep.
Okay, so anyway here’s the image:
It’s raining like crazy – and I mean POURING!
This is not that silly little sprinkle we usualy call “pouring” here in LA. I’m talking real back-east big-drops-exploding-on-the-windshield-faster-than-the-wipers-can-handle-it POURING rain.
Now usually when it rains here in So Cal, all the natives pile in their cars, get on the freeway, and then stop in the middle of the road ‘cuz they know they can’t drive in the rain. But today it was coming down so hard, the natives all stopped before they got out of their driveways, leaving the rest of us cruising at 70mph on the freeways trying to pick out the white lane markers through the blur between wiper-swipes.
As my wiper swipes by, I notice something odd about the white Mercedes in front of me. In the midst of this hellacious downpour, the passenger window of this beautiful new Mercedes is wide open - full down - so that this big brown mutt can hang his head out the window.
I pulled along side for a better look, and sure enough there’s this big ole pup in all his glory: Triangle ears waving like championship pendants in the wind, tongue flapping out the side of his mouth in the breeze, that dog-going-for-a-ride smile on his face, and water, water, everywhere.
Despite the drenching rain in his face, he was having a ball!
That’s it. That’s all. That's the image.
This dog is my new hero.
This guy wasn’t about to let a little lousy weather ruin his ride in the car, and he wasn’t about to curl up on the back seat like some freakin’ plastic bobble-head Chihuahua!
Never mind that this was the kind of rain that stings when it hits you (at speeds much less than 70 by the way) - he didn’t care. Real dogs ride with their heads out the window and, dammit, he was going to hang it out in the breeze rain or no rain.
I doubt that golf ball sized hail would have stopped him. A ride in the car doesn't come along every day and nothing was going to spoil this one!
This pup had the right attitude.
And my hat’s off to this driver, too.
You know his nice new Mercedes was getting a tad.... ahhhh... "humid" inside with that window down. But that's not the worst of it. What do you suppose happened when that dog pulled his drenched head and shoulders back into the car? I wouldn’t have wanted to be within 30 feet of that dog when he shook himself off, never mind trapped next to him in a car seat.
Anyway…that’s the image – dog's head out the window lovin’ the rain.
A simple moment's study in how to take and enjoy life as it comes.
For those who feel cheated that they didn’t get a real photo, here’s a shot from later in the day: A llama farm in the rain (yes I said llama) right smack on the San Andres fault above Palmdale. I can’t say the llamas were showing the same spirit as the pup, but the light was nice:
