rebeccmeister | Loose ends [stuff]

Sometimes it seems like too much of life is just trying to tidy up loose ends.

Today's loose ends (which are kind of literal, ha):

1. Rain pants. This is a sore subject. I do want to attempt a repair of my existing pair of Showers Pass rain pants, that currently have a large hole in the butt. The hole does not affect the functionality, because when I am riding a bike water falls on me from above, and my fenders protect my butt. Looking things over, the pair I have is advertised as their "packable" type, and they sell another, more expensive pair for more serious rainy conditions. The more expensive ones are currently on sale for around $100 off, probably because it's January and that's when companies try to reduce inventory on hand. I'm still holding Showers Pass at arms' length because their very nice jackets wear out too quickly for my uses, and it may be the case that even the more serious pants will, too. But for the short term they will make it possible to give the ripped pair a break so I can think about how to repair them. I might not be able to repair the ripped pair, though, because of how technical fabrics get manufactured nowadays. I am thinking I just want to sew on a giant reinforcement patch over the entire seat area, but it might be that the fabric of these can't handle being sewn. I'm not sure I can apply glue or some sort of seam tape, either. I tried re-melting the seam tape on an older Showers Pass jacket, and that went about as well as you can imagine.

A couple years ago, I tried to get Boathouse to make me a new pair of warmup pants, because my previous pair from college was awesome and lasted a really long time before it was time to hang them up for good. But the replacement pair had terrible fit, particularly for bicycling, so those just went into the donate bin so the sight of them doesn't make me angry anymore.

2. Bottle caps. For the sabbatical, I packed along two 16-oz plastic bottles of shampoo and conditioner. I actually inherited the bottles from my mother because her co-op doesn't do the right kinds of bulk shampoo, conditioner, and dish soap anymore. Anyway, one of the lids cracked at some point, and leaked shampoo all over the inside of the gallon ziploc bag I put the bottles in, just in case (go me, better than shampoo all over all of my clothing!).

Shopping for bottle caps/lids is always a funny project that seems to come up for me sporadically, more often than one might surmise. At one point I wanted to see if I could track down lids that would be compatible with my mom's collection of old food storage jars (very old peanut butter and mayonnaise jars that are splendid but oddly specific). Unfortunately I've never managed to fully follow through on that project. For my current workplace, there are a lot of mismatched bottles and lids. But when I recently checked, it wasn't possible to easily get the right replacement lids for the subset of bottles where it would be most useful to have replacement lids.

However, for the bottle caps, I think I found a place where I can get new ones. And even if that doesn't work out, I also ordered 2 more bottles that will be compatible with the caps I just ordered.

Shipping cost about as much as the actual plastic items, but I like these old bottles a lot, or I wouldn't bother with this project.

3. Boat stuff. This is still a very loose end, because I'm trying to get boat stuff for Petrichor, but also boat stuff for the rowing club. I have items together for one order of boat stuff from Fisheries Supply, but apparently I have to talk to a human being to get my online account set up (to line up with my in-person account, which gives me a discount), and they might be closed today. I have some things lined up for a second order, but I have to talk to rowing club people and wait for an item to get back in stock before I can place the second order. The second order isn't at all urgent, but I'll be glad when it's placed and done.

But anyway, it's time for lunch and time to tackle teaching prep for the week.