Someone? Out there? Suggestions?

Sometimes I spend too much money weirdly, like the yoga shirt I bought Tuesday night that I don't really like but took anyway because it was the right size and I was in a rush.

And then other times I don't spend money weirdly. I have been saying since the beginning of the summer that I need new tshirts. My current cadre are all pilly, stretched out or too small. I bought two new ones in May and now they're pilly, too. Right now I really don't have any nice tshirts to wear, and what I wear is tshirts. Have I done anything about this? No, I have not, because for some reason it seems more sensible to pay a gazillion dollars for a yoga shirt than it does a reasonable amount for stuff I wear all day every day.

This isn't a new trait. Over the years, I've developed a few coping strategies. At the end of last winter, I threw my winter boots out. In the garbage. Just like that. It pained me.

It was their third go 'round, and at the beginning of last winter, they were already in rough shape. The lining had a couple holes in it, there were a couple of cracks on the upper, they were a bit stinky, the zippers were starting to stick, and they were just not so warm anymore. Well, I thought, I'll keep a look out for a good deal this winter, and replace them when the sales start.

The sales started. I looked. Problem is, I hate almost all winter boots. They're either not warm enough, or ugly as sin. I want a winter boot with a good thick sole, because the higher my dogs are up off the cold concrete, the less the cold seeps into them. If I can get a couple inches of rubber between my sole and the sidewalk, I don't need crazy sheepskin/technical padding. But I don't want a boot with a heel. Of any sort. Even just a baby heel that's more like a slope. No.

If you have been looking at women's boots in the last couple of years, you know how hard a thick flat sole is to come by.

At the end of last winter, my coat was also in pretty bad shape. It had been given to me by the lovely Susan. She came into possession of it when living in Alabama with a crazy roommate who thought it a good idea to buy a knee-length down-filled good-to-forty-below winter coat for when it snowed that one time a year for five minutes. When the roommate moved out, the coat did not.

Being less than luscious in the curve department, I ended up with the XS coat. Being more than well-endowed in the arm length department, the sleeves are about 3 inches too short. And the zipper never worked*. And like all down coats, it's been gradually moulting. It's still pretty warm, but it's got a couple of holes in it, and is worn shiny in a couple of other spots.

I went looking for something similar. Thigh to knee length, down, long in the arms. Hard to find unless you want a giant hood with a fake fur trim. I do not. Not that I think those coats aren't nice, because they are, but somehow, they are just not me.

Though, unless someone out there has a good suggestion as to where I might be able to find a variety of coats in either Ottawa or Montreal, one of those coats might just be me by mid-December. And I might be wearing heeled boots with it.








*Actually a very good thing because I was often over-warm with just the snaps done up.