The chance of rain increases when carrying a purchase back to your car. The larger or more valuable the item, and the farther you are from the car, the greater the chance of rain. This is a scientifically proven fact.
You MUST carry a umbrella WITH you if you want to be sure it won't rain. I found leaving it in the car does not work. I had to buy a large box at the packing station (lobby of the blue/silver) to cover me, and ran to the car in the downpour. As soon as I touched the umbrella, the sun came out.
Money-making idea: Buy a box of cheap umbrellas and sell them in the parking lot. Oh wait, the PA tax folks will get you.
That money-making idea sounds like a good one, but I think a corollary to Joe Hohmann's and your very funny observations is as follows:
If you took it into your head to buy a box of cheap umbrellas to sell in the parking lot in the event of rain, it wouldn't rain the entire time you were out there selling.
If you gave up and went inside to look at trains, it would immediately start raining. Buckets.
If you said, "Eh, who cares?" and went shopping for trains, you would find the exact item for which you've been searching for 27 years. However, you wouldn't be able to buy it because:
- The seller's price would be exactly the amount of cash in your pocket PLUS
- Whatever the cost of the box of cheap umbrellas was.
In other words, Murphy was an optimist.
Steven J. Serenska