One of the things I wish I had known a lot earlier

was  taking a little better care of myself.

An example of this is the case of my army boots. I just junked s few pairs but kept one in case the army gets into some kind of trouble and they need the services of a beat up 66 year old man.

I replaced them with some good commercial foot wear.

When I was younger I could wander around on a steel deck all day and feel fine at the end of the day. A few years ago an on-deck watch would leave me aware that I had been on deck a while. It wasn't really pain, just a kind of tired feeling.

A shipmate turned me on to a pair of Bates and it was like walking on air.

Another thing is that I simply used to bundle up with whatever on cold days. For years an old flight jacket and several layers of zip-front hoodies served me well. To a certain extent I still layer.

I grew tired of this and decided to get myself some decent cold weather gear and that became another thing I wish I had done years earlier. I didn't 'cheap out',  either. I went with quality gear because it works quite well it lasts. Buy once, cry once.

While back in the day I was seldom truly miserable, I was never 100% comfortable. Good gear makes the difference.

Incidentally I am not a believer in insulated coveralls if you are going to be going in and out. I prefer a jacket and insulated overalls arrangement. You can take the jacket off and unzip the leg zippers when you come inside. With coveralls you either peel the whole rig off or roast when you are inside. It makes life a lot easier.

For what it's worth you also feel a little more professional in good gear. You're not running around like a bag of rags.

Good gear is about as expensive as rags when you amortize it over the years. In ways it may actually be a whole lot cheaper when you add everything up.




To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY