Finding what you’re looking for has never been easy.  The technical revolution of on-line shopping has not in my opinion made it easier.  Oh, yes, easier to spend your money; but, not easier to get what you want. And what makes it an even greater contest is that shopping in the ordinary way of going from one store to another hasn’t really got any easier either. The point is: shopping is a task, a real chore, a piece of business. You may think you can circumnavigate the exercise, but you cannot.  Shopping will forever remain a burden.  Though having said that, if one were lucky enough to have a successful shopping outing, then, Okay, you may convince yourself it hasn’t been an effort.  But it was work, you’ll have to admit, balancing calculation and enquiry. When it is over, there will be relief at the end of the day – whatever the outcome.

Today I went shopping for a vest.  A leather vest.  What one might liberally describe as a cowboy vest because the ideal cowboy vest has a collar, a part around the collar that folds into the shape of an elongated envelope.  The vest is a casual way to authenticate an otherwise drab look while wearing an open jacket for example.  And – more significantly – the vest can carry a pocket watch (assuming the it is equipped with the traditional vertical side pockets (as opposed to slanted pockets for inserting your hands).

All of which exemplifies the unanticipated commotion that attends what might mistakenly have been intended as a quick look at things.  It is never quick.  After our failed venture at Gregory’s Leather Fashions, we found ourselves putting things on and off at my brother-in-law’s house.  He had – for reasons we cannot yet fathom – generously chosen to purchase a number of articles which he thought would be of interest and appeal to us.  The long story is that he was correct – we returned with a parcel of items.  The preliminary account however is not without its record of obstacles and opposition. By way of example, do not assume that an old fogey such as I – no matter free from any financial imperative – is beyond laborious examination of colour, texture, size and fit. There is a reason the male peacock is the one with the plume and colour.  Masculinity absorbs an entirely new meaning when confronted with vulgarity of apparel.

The search for a vest persists as an outstanding devotion of mine.  Since having stationed ourselves at length above the 49th parallel, winter apparel has regained its lost allure.  The Polo shortsleeved shirts are in the drawer awaiting the summer solstice.  Meanwhile I am daily discovering things I had long ago forgotten.  But the noticeable absence of a proper vest (that is, one for casual wear, not a waistcoat for a suit) has propelled me into this vacuum for unabated investigation. Having been removed from candidacy in hibernal apparel for over a decade, I have allowed the acquaintance unwittingly to fall by the way.  My revival of interest has been slow but calculated.  Step by step I have activated my memory of those places where one might find what one is looking for. Tomorrow we go to Apple Saddlery which, as the name suggests, has an equestrian theme to it, involving coincidentally leathern vests.  So we’ll see.  My protuberant waistline may contaminate the enquiry from the outset. But the weather tomorrow is predicted to be sunny (though continuing cold) so to my way of thinking, a perfect day for a drive along a dry highway.