It seemed like a great idea at the time. No, really, it did.
There I was, standing on the kerb at the intersection with my wet sock getting ever colder and more unpleasant… the wet sock that I was currently wearing as a glove.
And here’s how I got to that point:
The early morning was cold enough that I didn’t relish the thought of walking with my guide dog Fiji with unprotected hands. But you see I don’t have gloves, nor can you buy them at this time of year in Cape Town because the shops are starting to show off their summer gear (how optimistic with a minimum of 6 – 10 weeks cold weather still in front of us).
Now, I’ll admit I’m not overly fashion conscious… in fact, I’m not in any way fashion conscious. And I’ve got a streak of practicality that’s a mile wide. Sure, I don’t like making fashion statements of the worst possible kind, But desperate times call for desperate measures and… With a sigh I grabbed a pair of running socks out of the cupboard and pulled them over my hands.
For a while I thought it was going to work out okay – our route was empty of other people so no-one saw thee odd spectacle of a woman with socks on her hands walking with a guide dog. And it turned out to be fairly easy to reach into Fiji’s treatbag with the socks on my hands so I could give her her usual rewards. Then an unforeseen side-effect of my dubiously brilliant plan began to manifest itself.
Fiji is a young and healthy guide dog. As such, she has a cold, wet nose. And every time she leaned forward to take a treat from my outstretched hand, she rubbed that cold, wet nose against my gloved… umm, socked… hand. And that part of the sock began to feel very cold in the biting morning air.
Which brings us back to the start of this story – with me standing at the intersection with the wet sock getting unpleasantly cold.
Eventually I was faced with a choice – take off the sock and leave my hands exposed to the chilly morning air, or leave the socks on and let my covered hands get even colder as a result of my guide dog’s healthy nose.
When it came down to it, it wasn’t really much of a choice. My hands were going to get cold either way. I removed the socks and stuffed them into a pocket and we continued our walk.
At least I no longer had to try to avoid people walking along the same route as us.
Hmmm, would that be called a Sockerchief?