Wednesday, May 18, 2011

She doesn't have sense enough to come in out of the rain....

I didn't mean to re-post this - I tried to edit it, but apparently when I edit and then publish, it brings it up on my followers dashboard.  

"She doesn't have sense enough to come in out of the rain."   All of my life, I've heard this phrase used to describe someone who is lacking common sense.  And have you ever thought about how often the word "rain" is used as an idiom.  For instance:
  • right as rain (no question about it being right)
  • come rain or shine (to do something no matter what the situation)
  • when it rains, it pours (one trouble right after another)
  • raining cats and dogs (raining very hard)
  • rained on his parade (to spoil someone's plans)
  • rain check (postponing an invitation or a promise to be able to purchase something later)
I can't think of nearly as many using the word "sun" - just three come to mind.

  • a place in the sun  (a situation that makes you happy)
  • make hay while the sun shines (to do something right away, without delay)
  • stick it where the sun don't shine  (hmm)
The last one is not nice, but the definition is obvious, don't you think?

As usual, I'm rambling from my original intentions of this post which was meant to be about chickens who do not have sense enough to come in out of the rain.  We have all kinds of shelters for our animals including a doghouse, an open lawn mower shed and a hen house.  But the chickens use none of the above when it rains.  The bantams usually ride out the rain under our boat which is sitting covered in the back yard, but Olive - she's another story.  During all of the rainstorms we've had this week, she has sit them out under the big kitchen bay window which doesn't provide nearly enough shelter.  After seeing her thoroughly drenched yesterday, I had had enough.  In the middle of pouring rain, I put on a rain jacket, grabbed her up along with baby Rube and took her to the small enclosed coop that we have for when we order "day old" birds from the hatchery.  It has a light to keep them warm and is safe, comfy and dry.  For a large bird like Olive, it can be a little claustrophobic, but it will keep her and the chick dry.  It's still chilly this morning, so I'm leaving them there with plenty of food and water until it warms up a little.  For the moment, she's found her "place in the sun".

Olive would be really upset if she knew that I was showing you how totally ridiculous she looks with a wet head, but it's so funny, I can't help myself.  Notice how baby Rube is never over a foot away from her side - she's perched upon the brick border to the right of the screen.  Rube is well camouflaged - blending in with the dead grass & leaves.  They're such an unlikely little pair, but they love each other.  Maybe after she has adjusted to motherhood, she'll have sense enough to come in out of the rain, but I don't think so.  And if you had seen me out in the rain yesterday while it was "raining cats and dogs", cleaning the little pen and gathering the two of them up, you would have said the same about me - and you would be "right as rain".  And if you didn't see me, would you like to take a "rain check"?

Olive - having a bad hair day

6 comments:

  1. Love the photo of Olive's hair! LOL! Little Rube is really well camouflaged, isn't she?! I could hardly pick her out - just about saw her little claw! I liked all your little sentences about the rain!

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  2. In Africa we would have days when the sun was shining but it was also raining (a sunshower) that was called "A Monkeys Wedding". I know rain or sun don't come into that expression but every Southern African knows it!

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  3. "A Monkey's Wedding" - that's interesting. Everyone has their little sayings, don't they. Here in the South USA, when there's a sunshower, we say "the devil's beating his wife" and occasionally there will be added something to it like "and throwing his kids out the window", or "with a frying pan". I don't know where that originates from, but I don't think it's only a Southern expression - I've heard others say it too.

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  4. I think you must have a *sunny* disposition to put up with cleaning out a hen house in the rain!
    Olive's hair looks much like mine when I'm caught out in the rain! LOL!
    Maggie X

    Nuts in May

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  5. Hi Maggie, by the time it was over, my disposition was a little cloudy at best - and my hair looked about as bad as Olive's. I just love my little Olive and the fact that she wasn't showing a lot of common sense prompted me to help her out a little - rain or shine, LOL.

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  6. I Love Olive, she is so prim and prissy and I have never met her.
    When I was a child we had a goose that had a nest of chicks, (Goslings)It Rained, My Mom came in so upset, all the goslings had turned their head up and drowned in the rain. True story.

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