😀 I can go whole winters and never put some of this stuff on. But when it gets cold, I finally – this is only my 12th winter in the Gulch – have a full set of cold weather kit.
Some of it might not pass on a city street, but we’re not near any of those.
I have a plastic-and-carbon-fiber foot, and they used to wear out socks at an appalling rate. But I kept wearing socks in pairs because that’s what you do, right? Even after I moved out to the boonies and really couldn’t afford to replace socks, for the first year or two I still kept wearing socks in pairs. Came as quite a revelation when it finally occurred to me that: a) nobody’s looking at your socks, Joel, and b)if I stop doing that, my socks will last much, much longer. So now I only wear a sock on the foot that can tell the difference.
It was kind of like that with that pair of great Sorel boots my neighbors gave me last winter…
That’s my regular winter boot on the left, and one of the Sorels on the right. I probably could wear the left boot, but why? It would be very difficult to get on and off, it’s so heavy it would feel like my prosthesis was trying to come off at all times, and the left foot doesn’t care about cold. And nobody’s looking. Except you, of course. But you won’t tell. Right?
Several years ago Claire gave me a gift of a mad bomber hat…
And it was deliciously warm while clearing solar panels on those very cold mornings, but unfortunately too small for comfort. At one point I thought maybe it was stretching to fit, but that turned out to be wishful thinking. But as a proof of concept, it was great: I wanted a hat like this that fit.
This autumn, flush with contributions, I pulled the trigger on that want.
And like the boot, I probably won’t wear it very often. This isn’t Minnesota, winters here are episodic. We’re going through a cold snap right now but it’ll probably be a memory in a couple of days. But oh, it made chicken chores a lot less unpleasant this morning.
The only problem with it is that it’s lined with rabbit fur, and LB finds it strangely compelling.
Oh Joel… Good to see you are coming to your senses fashion wise. If you only saw what I shrug into when I’m out ice fishing or going to clear the driveway with the snow blower. What was it Heinlein wrote? Oh ya… “Freedom begins when you tell Mrs. Grundy to go fly a kite.” Well that statement also includes fashion. Remember it’s better to look a little silly and be warm than looking really hipster and loosing things like fingers, toes, ears etc. to the cold. Function trumps style any day in my book.
Well actually that asymmetric look must be the cool thing these days. My fashion-minded granddaughter wouldn’t think of wearing matching socks.
“Remember it’s better to look a little silly and be warm than looking really hipster and loosing things like fingers, toes, ears etc. to the cold. Function trumps style any day . . . ”
. . . unless you are fourteen years old. I remember . . .
😉
this is a test toes if I can actually post here again. Wiz has done his usual excellent magic stuff.
Thank you Wiz.
Joel, the rabbit fur-lined hat is exceptionally handsome. Congratulations on your new chapeau.
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Woo Hoo! It works!
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Yay! Welcome back.