Where are the budget mittens?

Joe Fresh gloves at Loblaws

In the winter, I wear mittens. I do not wear gloves. Mittens keep my hands warm and gloves don't.

Also in the winter, I lose mittens. And toques. On Thursday morning, I lost my toque and a pair of mittens when I got off the bus.

So since then, I have been looking for low-price mittens and toques. I have been to the Bay, Winners, Sports Experts, Giant Tiger, Dollarama, Value Village, Loblaws and several other stores.

I did find some low-price hats. The best find was a $2.50 toque at Dollarama yesterday. Today, it occurred to me I should have bought five or six of them. I'll probably need them all eventually, and in the meantime, I'd have them on hand if I acquire a group of henchmen.

None of these places had low-price mittens. Only gloves. What is up with that?

Images

I am pleased to bring you some of the products of Sonja McKay's recent multi-media art class. Sonja tells me that she has a series of cartoons featuring these characters and another named Harey. "Moosey helps Harey the hare find a new place to live after Harey is evicted by a forest fire, and Lemmie and Rocky also figure in the adventure." I've asked for the whole series, but Sonja had some lame excuse about it being too long.

Update: Now available at Sonja's Highrise Blog Remember the red mitten on the hydrant marker at Louisa and Bell? It looks like the City staff who remove the hydrant markers in the spring have a practice of leaving lost mittens on the hydrants.

p.s. I have two big papers due very soon. This means you can expect lots of blogging from me.

Things I learned at the Vernissage

Michel learned from Andrew that the word "Vernissage" comes from the old practice of applying a coat of varnish to a painting as the final step. When the varnish has been applied, time for a celebration.

During a discussion about what Ottawans do with lost mittens, Michelle revealed that her husband Al expressed dismay about having lost a mitten one morning and within hours, she found the lost mitten on a fire hydrant marker.

Several weeks ago, she noticed a "scowly" woman on the street stop, bend over, pick up a mitten and place it on a sign post. She found it significant that even a person who appears to be having a bad day will take the time to elevate a lost mitten.

In further winter conversation, Michelle told us that after one snowfall this winter her snow shovels had vanished. No problem for our resourceful Michelle, she dug out her car with a large Rubbermaid container.

This prompted Davin to relate that he had also found an alternative winter use for a plastic storage container. When he couldn't find an ice-scraper, he cleared off his windshield with the lid from an Ikea food storage container.

It was at this point in the conversation that I took out my notebook to record these ideas for the blog. I could tell that Fran didn't feel happy that she hadn't contributed a blogworthy idea. I leaned over while the others were talking and told her I was sure she'd come up with something I could put in the blog. "Well, I do hoard those plastic disposable gloves you get at Herb and Spice and other bulk food stores."

"Ah, ha," I said, "that's exactly the kind of thing I'm interested in. What do you do with these gloves?"

"I have them in case I come across a doorknob I wouldn't want to touch."

"How often does that happen?" I asked.

"So far it hasn't..."

"but you never know when it could," I said, "so best to have some of those gloves around..."

"Yes," she said. "Davin thinks I shouldn't tell people this because it's kind of crazy..."

"Well, sure," I said, "of course it's crazy, but everybody is crazy in some way. Did you notice a bike outside with a broom attached to it?" She nodded and I continued, "it's mine."

Knitnut -- Lost Glove Alert and Dave X

I think that now that Zoom has gone and created a post just for me it's time I told you about her posting that made me add her Knitnut.net to my list of daily reads.

It was The Dave X Change Challenge. . It's a fascinating introduction to a fellow who lives on what other people lose or don't want and it describes a cool way that Zoom has got her entire workplace aware of the life of Dave X.

Sally and Friends (plus 2 bonus items)

1. Have you reserved a spot at Rasputin's for Saturday, February 4th? Sally Robinson will be making music with many of her friends. Rasputin's is small and Sally has a lot of friends. It will sell out. Even with all the accordion music that'll be happening and without people realizing that a certain Eb Alto Horn player will be stepping in on a couple of numbers. [more details]
2. The Maple Leaf Brass Band practised some of our pieces for the Brass Band Festival in Toronto on March 11 tonight. It is going to be one solid programme. A piece that always gives me goosebumps, and sometimes makes my eyes water is Gabriel Major-Marothy's Hymn. It's the second movement of his Suite for Brass Band. [You can download an mp3 of us playing it here.] Our conductor used to tell people that Gabe wrote it after 9-11. "Why does he tell people that?" Gabe would go when he sat next to me. (One of the intimidating things about playing 2nd Horn is that very good cornet players sit next to you.) "I wrote it before 9-11 and it was more about my girlfriend than anything else." [Our Toronto gig probably won't sell out, but why take chances? see Collaborations details here]
3. On the way home from practice, I saw that the red mitten is still on top of the hydrant marker at Louisa and Bell, but it has lost its hat of snow. There is now also a blue and white knitted glove on top of a hydrant marker on Arlington between Percy and Bronson.

Good turn out on Lebreton

I had a fine time voting today. "Lebreton Street," said the poll clerk, "we're getting a high turnout from Lebreton."

She and the Deputy Returning Officer chuckled politely when I said, "maybe you could write a letter to that effect to our City Councillor."

Then when I handed in my ballot they thanked me. "Thank you," I said, "see you next election, it'll probably be soon." Again they laughed politely.

On the way home, I spotted a red mitten placed on the top of a fire hydrant marker.

There are those who suggest this isn't the best neighbourhood in Ottawa, (okay, I was one of them on my recent request for re-assessment, but seriously, I couldn't sell this house for what MPAC says I could) but not only do we have a high turnout from Lebreton Street, someone who spotted a lost mitten picked it up off the ground and put it somewhere that it would get spotted and not get buried or walked on, driven over or snowplowed to the snowdump.

This thing about putting lost mittens and tuques on hydrant markers, parking meters and other such places... it's sort of new, isn't it? I don't remember seeing this in the '60s and '70s. We didn't have hydrant markers then either, but I just remember seeing lost winter gear lying on the ground getting smushed to tatters.