You Have An Umbrella

Eric can be a little stinker some times. So, every day from Monday through Friday, he has neighborhood swim team practice from 5:45-6:30pm. He likes to go early because he likes to help the coach get out the lane lines to get the pool ready for practice. Today, the sky was very dark and gray when we left some time after 5pm to get to swim practice early. I told him that maybe we shouldn't go to swim practice because it might rain. He said, "You have an umbrella. Why don't you bring it?"

There were quite a few people at the pool already. Some were there early for swim practice. Others were there for swim lessons or enjoying the pool with their families. Like on other days, Eric helped drag the lane lines across the pool. He spent quite a bit of time trying to attach one of them, because it wasn't quite taut enough and he had a hard time hooking it onto the other end.

As this was going on, the sky got even darker and the wind picked up. The temperature started dropping so much so that it actually seemed almost pleasant, at least for those of us watching, since we were dry and not wet. Even when we heard thunder, the coach did not call off practice. I always thought at the first sign of thunder OR lightning, everyone was supposed to get out of the pool, but the coach said to look out for lightning and then he would make everyone get out of the pool. I was a little nervous about that, so I asked Eric, "Why don't you get out of the water, because it's about to rain hard." He replied, "No. You can use your umbrella." I was a bit tickled by his insistence that he remain in the pool, but when we saw lightning, I was adamant and he eventually got out of the pool. Eric was the last one out of the pool. It had already started to rain and the rain was getting harder. Needless to say, practice was cancelled. I was glad I brought my umbrella.