I attended last week’s Envirothon at Lake Bronson State Park. The Envirothon is an outdoor environmental learning competition which I enjoyed very much however that is not my story this week. The story begins with the jacket I received for my participation in the competition as a judge.
There is something I enjoy about wearing a medium-duty jacket. Maybe this affinity is connected to the mild weather associated with this level of garb. You typically wear this type of jacket during the spring or fall, maybe at a football game or while working around the yard.
Some of my jackets were acquired during activities or due to work.
There was my Envirothon jacket from last week, my SWCD jacket or even old radio station jackets. I even have a favorite work jacket which I still identify by the person I first saw wear one, the Dale Nelson jacket. I even have a 1970s-era International-Harvester jacket in perfect condition. The jacket was a little snug for me at the time, so I held my breath and zippered myself in long enough for Lisa to get a picture.
My favorite jacket was one Lisa purchased for my birthday about two decades ago. This jacket did so much for me. It was made from brown cotton duck fabric. It was comfortable no matter what, and covered such a broad spectrum of weather conditions. I wore it as a dress jacket and later it became my work jacket. I think Lisa gave it to me due to her love for me, however she also wanted something to protect me and give me comfort. This was a jacket that gave me all of those things but offered its greatest measure of service after it was too worn for me to wear.
I have written often about our cats. Our first cats were Magoo and Twitch. These two were very large tomcats and spent the last years of their lives as diabetics. Magoo died first at about 17 years and was followed by Twitch who died at 19 years. We have a small pet cemetery at our farm. We buried Magoo in the blanket I used as a child. When Twitch died we needed something as full of love and comfort to wrap him in for burial.
Twitch’s death was unsettling, at least to a degree. He had been seeing the veterinarian regularly right up to the weekend when he died. We thought we would have one last quiet weekend with him but he had a convulsion and we couldn’t risk another one. A kind veterinarian came in that weekend to give Twitch a humane death and peace. We needed to wrap our little cat in comfort and protection, a good final memory of him prior to burial.
That brown duck jacket had a lot of wear and tear on it. The jacket had provided protection and comfort for me for many years and had almost become a friend. We could think of nothing more suitable to protect and comfort Twitch as we laid him to rest. It was given to me out of love and now we gave it to Twitch for the same reason as we buried him next to his brother and step-sister.
So yeah, I like jackets, but that was my favorite.
I attended last week’s Envirothon at Lake Bronson State Park. The Envirothon is an outdoor environmental learning competition which I enjoyed very much however that is not my story this week. The story begins with the jacket I received for my participation in the competition
