h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Very apt cartoon - there are a few people of this type around indeed.

Great artwork - excellent facial expressions, and I particularly like the wheelchair zoom marks

The wheelchair user was lucky the dedicated follower of feminine fashion was only looking at shoes, and not wheels or sleeves - she would faint away at the sight of me when it rains! Luckily that's what anoraks are for, to get wet and muddy, and they (including the sleeves) can be cleaned in a washing machine

Numerous people: "You can't hold an umbrella and push your wheelchair at the same time. What happens when it rains?"
Sasha: "I get wet."

This raises the rainy question - do ramps attract bigger puddles than the rest of the road? Muddy gloves and sleeves indeed - do you carry spares at all? Mind you I've only ever owned one umbrella in my life, which I was given when I was five. I still have it and it works 35 years later because I've never really used it - you can't cycle and hold an umbrella at the same time either, although at least I have a helmet. (Helmets that have a lot of air holes to prevent sweat mean rain gets in in winter, but helmets with fewer air holes on the top mean you sweat more in summer, so you can't win either way...)

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Yes indeed some ramps cause larger puddles to form where they meet the road, as the water runs down the ramp as well as off the road into a gully that doesn't always drain away.

I don't carry spares (apart from my hands without gloves on), but once or twice I could have done with them, especially when birdwatching as it can be squelchy sitting in cold bird hides. Mostly I have been going somewhere where I could take my coat off and let it dry a bit before the return journey. I think it is possible to buy spare sleeves, though, now you come to mention it, so I will investigate.

Yes, that is about the best option to have a 'happy medium' helmet that is reasonably good in wet and dry weather, rather than needing a different helmet for each occasion, which would soon fill up a wardrobe!

You carry spare hands without gloves on? Sounds very handy, that.

For some reason I pictured those clear plastic sheets that went over perambulators and pushchairs to keep the children inside dry - if you're prepared to spend 20 minutes trying to line up all the poppers and clips. All they ever did was steam up and get in the way, so I suspect that'd be far worse than just being rained on... Even if you could work out what to do with the wheels. Either your arms would get wet when rotating or you'd have to wear thick sleeves which would be impractical and/or a one-size-fits-no-one approach...

Do you have a lightweight, gurt big poncho?

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Just hands without spare gloves on!

Yes, when I was at school I had a perambulator cover of some sort but it didn't work very well at all, for exactly the reasons you say. I found it very embarrassing, too, just sitting there trying to hold the thing on, so I declined the offer the third time the teachers tried to get me to wear it. It was no problem after that, anyway, because the teachers realised they could let us go into the classroom for 'wet play' rather than squeezing everyone except me into the rain shelter that had a step to get in.

I do have a poncho from when I was in DisneyWorld - that worked quite well during the daily thunderstorms Mostly my anorak does the job, but the sleeves do get particularly muddy so spares would be handy. I see it is indeed possible to buy sleeves that would match my coat, so I am tempted to invest if I can find a UK supplier - they are for handling chemicals or milking cows

Handling chemicals and milking cows - very important not to get the two confused, but that may well explain

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