Friday, January 13, 2012

How yesterday's snow (may have) made me lose my glasses today

It all has to do with pockets. Let me explain.

It snowed anywhere from 4-8" in greater Chicago yesterday; our little corner of the world, near O'Hare, probably got 7" or so.

A lot of that -- more than half, easily -- was on the ground before I got home from work yesterday and, to his credit, Youngest Son made a concerted effort to remove said snow from our sidewalk and driveway before my arrival. But it kept snowing well into the night; it was obvious that there would be more to shovel this morning.

I was pretty sure that I had nothing scheduled today, but I snuck down the steps in my boxers this morning to check my diary, just to be sure. As a solo practitioner I can set my own dress code -- and, now that I'd verified that I didn't need to dress for any court appearance or other appointment that might require a coat and tie, I donned blue jeans and a flannel shirt and went out to tackle the driveway.

Long Suffering Spouse was already out there, as I knew she would be. Between us, we got the accumulated snow reduced to a minimal film of packed snow and ice, leaving me time to drink nearly half my morning coffee.

But I mentioned pockets. I use my glasses more and more these days, particularly to see the computer screen. The focal point of my vision is changing -- moving away, apparently, from the monitor. The glasses help keep the characters on the screen, if not my actual prose, crisp and sharp.

But the glasses go in the inside right pocket of my suit jacket. When I'm wearing Levis for Old Fat People (these are actually marketed as "Dockers") the pockets are deep enough that I can slip the case for the glasses in the pants pocket. Of course, at that point I look like I'm wearing a codpiece -- and a very irregularly positioned one at that.

The glass case won't fit in the jeans pocket, at least not with all the other junk that has to be carried in the pants pockets (like my cellphone, for example) when I'm not wearing a suit coat.

Long Suffering Spouse was anxious to get started, and she has to drop me off at the train on her way to school. She was already in the car when I devoted a nanosecond or two to the idea of how to convey my glasses. I had to much garbage in my briefcase to fit the glasses in there -- not and carry my sandwiches too. So, I thought, there are big, roomy pockets in my old down jacket that I wear on days like this. There are two pockets on each side, a top-opening pocket and a side-opening pocket. I can't imagine what the side-opening pocket is for. Gloves, perhaps -- as long as those gloves are completely expendable.

I put the glass case in the top-opening pocket of the down jacket.

Or, at least, I think I did.

All I know for certain is that, when I got to the train platform this morning, I felt my pocket to reassure myself that the glasses were safely in place.

They weren't.

Either they fell out of my pocket when I jumped out of the car to get to the train or I forgot to actually act on my decision about where to put the glasses. I'm hoping for the latter, obviously.

If it hadn't snowed, I'd be wearing a sport coat at least. And the glasses would be in their usual pocket. So, unless I'm going soft in the head (certainly a possibility), I lost my glasses today because it snowed yesterday.

2 comments:

Empress Bee (of the high sea) said...

if guys had purses that would not be a problem... but then they'd lose the purse?

smiles, bee
tyvc

The Curmudgeon said...

Bee, my briefcase is pretty much a purse, whether I call it that or not. But it's stuffed so full, there's generally no room in it for the glasses. (I carry around all sorts of stuff I really mean to do soon -- and sometimes "soon" turns into several weeks.)

Updating on this post, BTW: It turns out I am soft-headed. I only thought I'd put the glasses in my coat pocket.