It’s going to be below 50 degrees, and possibly raining, when I head out the door tomorrow morning. At least it won’t be as dark as it’s been the last two weeks, assuming the clouds aren’t too bad. I’m looking at various websites trying to sort it out and mulling over what I’m wearing tomorrow.
The problem is, I have a crap-ton of jackets. Having gone from Nashville to Washington DC to Silly Con Valley, I have a wide and varied array of coats, most of which are about 80% of the way there. Right now, the problem I’ve had lately is that it’s cold enough for a jacket in the morning but too warm for it by lunchtime, which usually means a softshell that can be wadded up and crammed into the backpack. If it’s raining, though, you have to commit to the coat because you’re not going to want to stuff a wet rainshell in with your laptop. And if the coat’s too thick, you can’t wear the backpack (the leather stuff is right out).
Right now, a rainshell isn’t enough unless you’re layering with something else, but the shell is the only thing with a hood. I have an oilcloth engineer’s coat which is shorter than a typical duster and flannel-lined to boot, which is plenty warm and doesn’t let the water through even if it does get hella wet on its own, but it doesn’t have anything to keep the rain off my head. There’s always my CERT jacket, but even if it was here and not at work, it’s BRIGHT canary yellow and tough to miss. (Although it would have been nice to have for today’s drill.) Hell, I even have a state-of-the-art sportcoat by Saboteur, in dark gray wool. that has taped seams and waterproofing, but you wouldn’t dare wear a backpack over it even if it were roomier, which it’s so not. That’s going-out wear, not a daily driver.
At this point, I don’t quite know what the move is. I know that everyone here repeats the manta “LAYERS LAYERS LAYERS” but I’d rather not have to take off more than one thing. Even if I were going to, I’d need some better layers than what I have. The really annoying thing is that I have a whole lot of jackets that are 3/4 of the way to what I need, and a lot that are wholly impractical but rich in sentimental value. And as always, I’m constantly searching for the one perfect 100% thing so I can unload a bunch of the 75% things.
What is it with me and outerwear?