Gifts from 2019: Gear insights

RantWoman, in consumate procrastinator mode is only now getting around to noting both resolutions and insights from the rollover of the year.

RantWoman's main resolutions:

--Walk more. Make time in the day. Venture out past the breezeway. Time the walking to avoid...

--Do fall prevention exercises and other morning exercises as religiously as body condition allows. RantWoman is mostly back to normal after fracture except for two points:

     --RantWoman keeps trying to reach things on the top of her cupboards. The right arm still complains. The left arm serves reluctantly.

    --RantWoman has exercises with 8lb handweights that RantWoman cannot quite do yet. Keep trying.

--Try to cut down on use of single use containers / packaging unless it is compostable / recyclable. RantWoman means to augment this resolution with some research. RantWoman means to start now with or without research.

--A recurring resolution: it is never too soon to declutter some more!

--Cut down on the procrastinating about some other professional directions.

Get the Right Gear: insulated water bottles.

Has RantWoman mentioned, in say the last 10 seconds that she is a huge fan of staying hydrated? Over the last year, RantWoman has shifted from carrying around stainless steel water bottles (and sometimes Starbucks cups) to...drum roll...INSULATED water bottles! The biggest enhancement from the beverage standpoint: ice in the insulated water bottles stays ice for a LONG time. One can add water many places. Voila. Ice water anytime!

Get the right gear: Dog walker lights and (and compression socks)!

RantWoman is, peculiarly, allergic to getting run over. RantWoman also has GIANT envy for small children who get to run around in shoes that flash when they walk. RantWoman has been excited to discover and not only in pet stores while tending to the Queen of Spades litter box requirements, that there now exist several kinds of lights people attach to their dogs to enhance visibility in the cold and dark of the NW.  These lights, it turns out, also attach splendidly to shoelaces, to bungee cord loops for Ambassador Thwack, and sometimes to purses and bags. Just as important, bus drivers tell RantWoman the lights are easy to see.

 

Further shameless product placement: RantWoman is a huge fan of compression socks from Vim and Vigr . Check out their site because they have redone their sizing with separate wide calf sizes in small, medium, and large for both men and women. (shhh. Don't tell anyone: RantWoman often buys men's sizes. The world has not stopped.)

Even more fun, RantWoman tweeted to ask the other day, would anyone besides RantWoman pay extra if the spiffy compression socks had some hi-vis stripes. The Marketing department ttweeted back: they are happy to look into the idea!

A digression: blind people who recognize each other visually.

Very few people are totally blind with no vision whatsoever. Many more people have different levels of residual vision. RantWoman is VERY glad to have that, thank you very much--except for the part about glare, weird and in one case a little scary floaters, pupils that do not dilate and constrict normally, and other ocular adventures. RantWoman fights her glare issues often by just wearing a large hat indoors and out. RantWoman needs her hat so badly that she also goes about prepared to say the phrase "Reasonable accommodations" with regard to wearing her hat indoors in places where hats are usually prohibited. RantWoman prefers to avoid taking this tack, one reason RantWoman does not attempt some kinds of work. 

RantWoman brings up the whole hat subject though because recently, she ran into someone she knows on the bus who ften can also do what RantWoman does to identify people, sort out rhythms, shapes, and sometimes gear to identify people. In this case, the other person said she often recognizes RantWoman by her hat.

Speaking of hats, a sob story

A couple years ago, before Bernie Utz hats closed downtown, it was time for RantWoman to replace her hat. RantMom suggested buying RantWoman a hat for a birthday present. The store stock was already somewhat stripped due the the store's impending closure, but RantWoman came home with a quite functional black rain resistant hat with a chin strap RantWoman usually tucks behind her braid. Or at least when she remembers. The hat is good rain or shine...except one day recently. RantWoman was downtown. It was very windy and there was also rain. Plus RantWoman was trying to make a bus connection.

The wind grabbed RantWoman's hat and flung it first to teh sidewalk and then according to the bus driver all the way across the street. It was dark. It was stormy. RantWoman was already late. RantWoman decided she would have to survive the evening without a hat. She was getting a ride home anyway and does have other hats for backup. 

But RantWoman was VERY distressed--until she looked at the website for the hat company and remembered that some of their hats come with a lifetime guarantee. RantWoman has no idea the exact name of that hat style. RantWoman does not of course havea picture of the damage or of any inside label saying the hat has a lifetime guarantee. But RantWoman decided to submit a claim and her sob story anyway.

Here, almost verbatim minus a brand name is the sob story.

Dear ...

Thank you very much for the followup.

Attached is a picture of me wearing the hat that got blown away in

howling wind while I was trying to catch a bus in downtown Seattle

sometime before I filled out the form.

I am the person in red with a bunch of stuff around my neck wearing the black hat, carrying a white cane etc. I have some vision but I have a lot of difficulty about bright sun and glare. So I wear hats many places indoors and out. Professional appearance and durability are important to me and this is the second (brand name) hat I have owned. Come to think of it, I have no memory of what happened to the first one and find myself wondering whether it also got blown away.

The picture here is from some colleagues on a digital inclusion project and we snapped pictures after an appearance by WA Gov. jay Inslee in the public housing community where the team works. I am

sorry but if I could not get the hat during a windstorm there is no way I can show the resulting damage which probably includes water and mud. I also am not sure it is a guaranteed for life style so I would be very grateful if you can help figure that out..

The hat is black and I do not know what exact style it is except I know it is a (brand name) hat that I bought just before my favorite hat place in Seattle Bernie Utz hats closed in downtown Seattle. ...

Does this provide you enough information to identify the hat style and be able to tell whehter it is a  Guaranteed for life style? I do not mind thinking about buying a new hat but I really appreciate you checking first.

Thank you very much for help about this.

(RantWoman)

On that note, here is wishing everyone a hopeful and energized 2020.