Hi Vis

The days are growing shorter and grayer. Budget projections are growing more dour at every turn and in every quarter. RantWoman feels as if she SHOULD be burnishing her resume, redoubling her Make Your Own Job zeal, polishing up and MAYBE professionalizing her electronic presence, waxing eloquent and enthusiastic about the latest frontiers of broadband-based togetherness or at least making some appointments for information interviews, oh and applying the word warranty to her Kindle with its ailing screen.

First RantWoman needs to stay alive, and this time of year staying alive means BEING SEEN. RantWoman's basic perspective on this has not changed substantially since penning the following items

http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2009/02/make-me-glow.html


http://rantwoman.blogspot.com/2009/09/pedestrian-reflectors.html



This year though, RantWoman's heart and fashion sense are turning to...High-visibility clothing:

Digression: ANSI standards, basically the traffic speeds / ravel distances at which different grades of reflective gear are supposed to be visible.
http://www.esafetysupplies.com/Safety-Vests/

RantWoman has decided that for city wear, ANSI Class 2 should be adequate but RantWoman definitely will not turn down Class 3 gear if it fits her budget.

Considerations: this type of highly reflective clothing tends to be worn a lot by police officers, telephone and electrical linepersons, various flavors of First Responders. RantWoman wants to be seen during her normal life and pedestrian activities and wants clothing designed to promote that. But RantWoman does NOT want anyone to expect her to fix their phone lines, direct traffic, or look officious in a disaster.

The bomber jacket: this will make RantWoman look like a long-legged giant walking lemon. RantWoman, though. is seriously considering some windbreaker and other jacket options. RantWoman would especially swoon for info that tells her the length of different sized garments. Such fantasies.

The Vest: again with the length issue. RantWoman is actually seriously considering a good vest if she can find one that is long enough to suit her, preferably zippered, and of a size that can be worn over all the other perfectly fine but not reflective enough outerwear that RantWoman already owns.

http://www.bernedirect.com/Hi-Visibility-Multi-Color-Vest.html



http://www.esafetysupplies.com/5-Point-Breakaway-Mesh-Safety-Vest-EMS-Rated.html


Some options RantWoman really likes but has not decided to buy:
http://3m.links.channelintelligence.com/oemsites/10191459/ScotchLite/index.asp



If RantWoman wants to really go nuts, she will also look for reflective gloves and a reflective ran hat with a decent brim all the way around the crown. RantWoman favors lightweight gloves, about the weight of knit gardening gloves; so far everything RantWoman has found looks too heavy.
Ooh, ooh, ooh, look, wait:
http://www.officerstore.com/store/category.cfm/cid_454458_hi_vis_gloves/



RantWoman found one hat she liked but neglected to save the link. Sigh.

And Dear Amazon, you are not the only offender in this category, but you are today's prize winner. RantWoman is amused that Amazon showed up in search results for a search string involving pedestrian and reflective. RantWoman clicked on the link and read through everything on the next page of search results that came up. RantWoman found not a thing that contains the more important word, reflective. RantWoman was thoroughtly peeved by all the entries on this page that offered to take RantWOman to hundreds more results per category. Even if RantWoman had functioning eyeballs this likely would be TOO MUCH and there is NO WAY RantWoman is going to take eny more steps further down the tree with Mr. JAWS.