Baker Lake Vignette #240 (Parka)

(Originally released February 18, 2005)  

The weather finally relented and gave us all the mid

week blizzard we so rightly deserved.  At exactly 5:00

PM on Wednesday the second of February the winds

picked up to about 50km/hr.  With the recent

accumulation of snow on the ground the visibility

quickly dropped down to zero as the wind continued to

pick up, eventually reaching speeds of 110 km/hr.

It's what you might call “a perfect storm”.  That is

because it developed in strength overnight making a

school cancellation inevitable.  And to our further

delight the storm raged on through the rest of

Thursday and all day Friday giving us a four day

weekend.  After four straight weeks of uninterrupted

work it provided us with a break that we all needed.

    The only real problem with such a generous gift is

how to use it to it's best advantage.  The first day

off you are somewhat shell shocked.  You can't

actually believe you don't have to go to school.  And

it's for this reason alone you don't jump out of bed

and pour yourself a great big mug of beer.  Between

pinching yourself and looking out to see if you can

tell if the blizzard is really going to continue all

day, you wonder what you will do with yourself.

Unfortunately the list of things that “I will do later

when I get some free time” is way to long.  It can't

be done in a day so why even bother trying to tackle

it at all.  I mean the moving boxes will eventually

unpack themselves.  And as for cleaning the house....

c'mon this is a free day off of work not a free day to

do work.  Before you know it it's 12:00 and you are

still sitting on the couch with your coffee looking

out at the weather and saying how lucky you are not to

have to work today and man it's great to have all this

free time.  But of course the day is half over now.

Damn, I've only got a half day left to not work, I'd

better find a good way to waste my time and quick.

    If I fall into “slacke'r's block” as I inevitably do,

I simply lie down and read a book.  Better to be

reading a book if you can't think of anything else to

do.  It's somewhat satisfying in that it's relaxing

and also it feels like you are doing something.  Yes,

I'm expanding my mind.  And after half a week teaching

high school I'm badly in need of a good mind

stretching.  The first thing I notice about my day off

is how bright it is outside.  For the last few months

I have not seen the sun at all except for weekends.

For some reason the middle of the day on a free day

off is spectacularly bright.  I get to thinking

“wouldn't it be nice if I never had to go back to work

ever again.  I could spend every day curled up on the

couch basking in the warmth of the afternoon sun,

every once in a while waking from my sleep to tackle

another chapter in the book I am currently reading.”

I'm assuming I only feel that way because I know it

will never happen.  Anyways before I know it, it's

getting on near the middle of the afternoon.  Hey, I

would be finishing school by now.  Is my free day

really over?  How come it seems so much longer when

I'm actually at work.  How come leaving the house at

7:00 AM and getting home some time after 6:00 PM seems

like such a long time when work is involved and here

it has been frittered away in barely enough time to

get through 20 pages of my book.

    Of course there is a lot more happening besides

reading a book.  There is food preparation and eating

to be done.  And to tell the truth I am actually doing

some work on the typical snow day, I'm usually making

beer or wine.  It's, by far, chore #1.  Ok, so that's

where my morning went to.  I forgot that.  Must have

been all the sampling I was doing.  By the end of the

day, feeling like my free day was not put to it's best

use, I vow to do a better job tomorrow if only the

storm can last.  Tomorrow I really will do all those

things I've been putting off.  I couldn't do them

today, there just wasn't really the time.  But

tomorrow... for sure.  All the bargaining and weather

website checking finally pays off and the next day we

do indeed get an extension of the blizzard.  Well

now's the time to get caught up on all those Baker

Lake Vignettes I've been meaning to write.  Like the

one about what I do on snow days (been there, done

that before) or the one about what a pain in the ass

the kids at school are to me(done that to death I'm

sure).  Ah forget it, I've got nothing new to say, may

as well just do some reading.  The weekend is coming

anyways an I get some work done then..

    But there is something nagging at me.  There really

is something I'm supposed to  be doing when I get a

snow day.... Hmmm, what is it? ...... The kids last

year wanted me to make curtains for the portable.  I

told them I would as soon as we got a snow day.  Well

we had about 10 snow days last year and I managed to

find an excuse every time as to why I never got around

to it.  “Well I checked at home and I didn't have the

right material.  Unfortunately I couldn't buy any new

material because of the blizzard.”  ... “But Tyler,

the stores were still open.”  .... “And what?  You

would have me risk my life out in a blizzard so you

can have a few scraps of fabric hanging on the walls

protect your precious eyes from the sun?”  Or I would

say “No use making curtains at this point, there isn't

any sun anyways.  I'll make them when it starts to get

brighter out.”  Kids aside, I had this feeling that

there was still something even more important that I

had been putting off for some time.  Oh yeah, I

remember, I was supposed to make a parka for myself.

    Now here was something that really needed to be done

and for a couple of  reasons.  First of all my old

parka was pretty torn up and loosing it's insulation

value.  I got a new down jacket recently and I needed

to make a shell for it before the dog ripped it to

shreds jumping up on me.  Also I was planning on

taking some outdoor courses at the upcoming teacher

conference in Iqaluit and I needed my clothing

ensemble to be top notch (both warm and stylish).

With a couple of weeks to go I'd better get on it or I

would either be freezing my ass of or looking like

some kind of hobo.  Add to that the fact that I spend

over a hundred dollars on material, patterns and other

sewing odds and ends and you see that there is a

significant investment here at stake.  So now it's

Friday, the second day off.  Should I get started on

this project or save it for the weekend. (Just as an

interesting aside.... since I started composing this

vignette yesterday another blizzard came to town and

it's now Friday again in actual fact, and school has

once again been canceled.  So I have the opportunity

to finish this story about what I do when there is a

blizzard and I get the day off.)

    So I've got this really complex pattern for a parka

that includes pockets, zippers, a liner, and some

other fancy layer I don't even remember the name of.

Chad and Tanya have a pattern for a simple anorak

(which is what I want to make) but they don't want me

to cut it to the large size in case Chad wants to use

it to make a extra large.  So I begin to cut out my

pattern.  I discard anything that refers to a liner

and anything that I don't recognize or would not know

how to sew.  I also discard the front of the pattern

because I don't want a front with a zipper I just want

an anorak and hence the front would look much like the

back.  I decide to use red and black material and

randomly choose which pieces will be black and which

ones will be red.  Turns out I have lots of material

for the few little pieces of the pattern I actually

use.  In my head it all seems to make sense.  I can

picture the whole thing coming together (more or

less).  I look over at all the papers spread out on

the floor and see that Mackenzie is also wanting to

help.  He walks over the pattern poking holes in it

with his nails before he finally set his ass down on

the middle of the paper, hind legs raised up to the

roof and with his front legs pulls him self across it

leaving a giant skid mark.  Now what am I to make of

that?  Is it a comment on my potential sewing ability

or does he just not like the pattern?

    I cut out the material and start to sew.  It's all

going along very well.  This parka is practically

making itself.  After the arms are done and the body

is I done I attempt to put them together.  The only

problem is that I made the two arms identical.  I

mistakenly assumed the sleeve pattern was uniform but

as it turn out there is a front and a back to the

sleeve.  I have now entered the tearing apart stage of

the project.  It's all well and good to make something

that is difficult but if you are to be set back by

undoing your work...  it's almost too heart breaking

to go on.  And in the process of undoing my hard work

I, of course, rip part of my material as well.  But

hey, the day is young and I have lots of time to

finish this project.  And don't forget there is always

the weekend too.  I manage to undo my mistake and get

back on track.  The thing is coming together nicely.

Except for the fact that it looks really big.  I mean

really, really big.  In fact it's so big that I can't

get all the pieces to line up properly.  I guess that

would mean only some of the pieces are too big or

perhaps some of them are too small.  I decide to make

the big pieces smaller so can can get the cocksucker

sewn together and tried on for a fitting.

    When I do put it on it feels a lot not unlike I'm

just draping myself with a bunch of cloth.  Is this

supposed to be a parka?  Why is there such ample room

in the breast area?  I still hadn't attached the hood

so I assumed once that was done it would feel and look

a lot better.  And it did.  There was a lot o tricky

sewing with the hood but in the end it did resemble a

parka more than a bed sheet.  I was pretty darn proud

of my accomplishment as well as the subtle innovations

I added just to make the thing work out.  It was both

functional and classy looking.  And owing to the ample

room in the chest it was very much a unisex design.

Maybe I could store my snacks under there.  The only

real problem I had with the parka was that after I put

my hat and down filled jacket on underneath I couldn't

do up the hood.  I contemplated that one for about a

week before I made further ingenious alterations that

resulted in the ultimate, home-made Baker Lake anorak

original.  I was so proud in fact that I even wore it

to school to show the kids.  “Who made your parka?”

... “I did.”  ... “You did not, who made it?”  .... “I

made it on the snow day.”  .... “You were supposed to

be making us curtains.” ... “But we don't need

curtains anymore.  We have blinds.”  ... “So, whatever

happened to the curtains.”  .... “I made a parka

instead.” .... “You didn't make that parka.” 

    I think I convinced some of them that I made it after

showing them a sample of my shoddy and messy stitching

and explaining in detail all the finer features of the

parka in a way only the true designer could.  “Well

that's not to bad, but you still owe us some

curtains.”  ... “Sure thing, next snow day.”  Which of

course is right now.  But as it is so very obvious I'm

busy doing a little bit of writing and I'm sure by the

time I proof read I will be totally spent for the day,

I'll probably not get around to the curtains.  I'll

maybe have just enough energy left to do a little

reading or bottle that batch of white wine that is

downstairs waiting for me.  Gotta love these snow

days!