Winter, being less than tempestuous around here, always catches me with my pants down. Then up. Then down. Then up. …
Take yesterday, for example. It wasn’t all that cold, but there was a stiff, bitter wind out of the northwest. I briefly considered and swiftly rejected a bike ride, then set about trying to figure out what to wear for a short trail run.
Jaysis wept, etc. The winter clothing options in my dresser look like the “Free” box at the last day of a garage sale in a bad neighborhood.
Paddygucci base layers from when they were still made in the US of A. Hind tights old enough to run for president, in any season. Prehistoric Smartwool socks that couldn’t even make the cut for that “Free” box.
And none of this gear has a pocket for the iPhone, which I have carried religiously since breaking an ankle during a tech-free run five years ago (unable to summon a chariot like a king wounded in battle I had to serf home using a downed tree limb as a crutch). One long-sleeved Columbia top, a bit of VeloNews swag, sports a zippered iPod pocket in the left sleeve, with cutouts for earbud wires. Anybody remember iPods? Wired earbuds? Or VeloNews, for that matter?
In the end I chose the Columbia top (leaving the iPod and earbuds at home); the warmest (and possibly eldest) of my Paddygucci base-layer shirts; Darn Tough wool socks; Sugoi tuque; Smartwool gloves; and the lightweight Paddygucci Terrebonne pants I shredded when I broke the ankle (three pockets plus plenty of holes if I wanted to choose the scenic route for the earbud wires from the iPod I wasn’t packing).
And thus equipped, as Herself and I were jogging up the final winding climb before the paved descent back to El Rancho Pendejo, I thought, “Goddamnit. I am totally overdressed for this shit. I should’ve gone for a ride.”
Mad Blog Media 
I have an iPod Touch, the final iteration, and use it every day, mostly as a music player in the house and car. You can email and message on it if and even use the browser if necessary. But, you better have good vision! Mine is wifi only, and I would buy another today if they still made them.
Ah the Touch. Mine logged a zillion miles and still plays if plugged in. Once I parked my music library in the cloud, the IPhone took over. Then I found I could stream Radio Paradise in hi-res and that’s how newish music reaches me. OMG I’ve got SO many CDs. Talk about bi-polar, I’ve got almost all the CDs backed up in Flac format on a hard drive as well as several mega size SD chips. I no longer remember why!
As for Ancient Apparel, I’ve got some RailRiders pants, shirts and layer pieces that are hitting the 30 year mark. They have a certain patina that says “ cheap old geezer”. I bought two pair of their winter lined pants 3 years ago that will outlast me and perhaps my offspring.
The older I get and, obviously, the more weather I have seen, the less accurately I gauge the appropriate garments required for survival.
But I rarely go so far that I can’t turn around 15 minutes into it and head back to either the house or the car.
It’s been ages since I’ve been 30+ miles away from base camp and found myself in a predicament.
I think I need to remedy that this weekend …