Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

While I was visiting my father, he admired my Jacaru Australian hat (pictured in icon). I explained how, because of marginal shipping costs, I buy several of them at a time. They do wear out, but I'd rather the hats wear out than my head. He said that the next time I made an order that I should get one for him.

Today, I checked, and I did have one remaining hat from the last order, so I packaged it up and sent it to him as a Father's Day present. I guess I need to order three more now, however.

The hat that I wear most of the time is a style of Jacaru hat that I picked up on my trip to Aussiecon Four and found that I really liked. I have run through three of them so far, as I'm apparently hard on my hats, but I'd rather the hats wear out than my head, particularly now that my hair is so thin on top.

( Time for a Change )

Yesterday I got some suede leather protector spray and sprayed the new hat with several successive coats, in the hope that it will help protect the hat. Today was its first day as my main hat.

( Hat Man )

I guess sometime in the next year or so I should consider ordering two more hats. Hat #3 joins its predecessors on a hat tree in the house. Sometimes when doing yard work around the house, I use the older hats, which are pretty beat-up by now but mostly keep the sun off my head.

Oh, and the black shirt? It's a sign of the end of summer, as I switch between khaki and black as the weather cools. The hat stays on in all seasons, though, protecting me from sun and rain alike. "Cowboy" hats are easy to find in Fernley, but this Australian style suits me more than the ones available in stores around here.

As we were finishing the final load of packing of our hotel room into the minivan and getting ready to check out of the Town & Country at Westercon, I said, "Where's my hat?" That's my Jacaru Australian hat, itself the replacement for the one I bought in Australia and wore out. The hat is gone. The window of time during which I could have lost it is small. Lisa and I both remember me wearing it back from dinner last night (we checked with the restaurant anyway; no luck), and I thought I took it back to the hotel room, then came back down to the Dead Dog gathering later without my hat. The hat was not in the room; we checked thoroughly. It was not in the Con Suite. The front desk when I checked out checked with lost and found: no luck. We gave up and left, 45 minutes behind schedule.

Bishop is a pretty long drive, but we did get there a bit after 7 PM. We got a pizza from the Pizza Factory two doors down and tried to take it easy, despite my having computer problems (more about that later). It finally dawned on me where I probably left my hat: in the hotel restaurant where we had breakfast. It wasn't in Lost & Found because it was too soon. I tried calling the T&C, but it's too late at night. I'll call them tomorrow. Hopefully they can mail my hat back to me. I like that hat. I wish we'd figured that out sooner, though.