We lived in the Far East for a number of years and, as I’ve mentioned a number of times, Hong Kong is just about my favorite city. No matter where we were living, my job job always required quite of bit of travel. When we were in that part of the world, if it was possible I always scheduled the trip through Hong Kong and if time permitted, stayed a few days.
One of many things that was interesting about Hong Kong is that, a lot like Washington, they got a lot of “executive showers.” Many afternoons, they’d get a rain shower — and just like magic these little stands would pop, on almost every street corner, selling umbrellas. They were decent umbrellas and super cheap. I think they cost about a dollar or something like that. Anyhow, over the years I accumulated what seemed like hundreds of umbrellas. Every time I’d bring another one (or more) home, Claire would joke that when we retired we could open an umbrella store. This big box of umbrellas got shipped all around the world with us for years.
But on our last move from overseas — back to the U.S., when our household belongings were delivered to the house we’d just purchased…. only one thing was missing. That huge box of umbrellas. I often wonder if that was intentional or simply an honest mistake. I somehow can’t stop believing that somewhere in this world we set someone up in the umbrella business….
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