My Magical Toque

As mentioned in my earlier post, I was in Seattle last weekend. The drive up was nasty. Dry freeway until Winlock, windy & rainy through to Seattle. Pouring when I picked up Coiln. Rainy during load-in (we were mopping puddles off my product boxes, the floor), rainy to dinner, you get the idea. Seattle in December and its stormy & rainy? What a surprise. When I climbed out of the truck & threw up my hood (a wet one at that, worn over a wet Pendelton wool shirt), my black toque fell off my lap. After dinner it was still raining and when I opened the truck door, I saw my toque on the street. I started the truck, picked up my toque & wrung it out. A few times. I mentioned to my passenger that I had found my hat, thank goodness, and I hope its dry before morning. The following morning, I was up and ready much earlier than anticipated (not unusual for me the morning of a big show; a mix of excitement & anxiety are normal feelings for me) so I took some time to organize the back seat of my truck, remove the garbage, dry things off since everything was wet from the downpour the previous day. In the midst of organizing, cleaning, my still sopping wet toque ended up on my back bumper. I closed the tailgate, the canopy window, locked it, got in the truck and drove to the venue. The drive is about 5 miles, pretty much a straight shot from my host’s house, south on Aurora to Seattle Center. There were multiple steel plates placed over seams in the road, lots of road construction and typical for Seattle, potholes so deep you could loose a small child in them. In other words; an easy drive, but bumpy. Park the truck in the garage across the street from the venue, get out of the truck to get my lunch box out of the back and I see it ... my sopping wet toque is still sitting on my bumper. The toque is noting remarkable; its a black stocking cap that I’m sure many of you own one just like it. I guess its the fact that it stuck with me through all this weather. More than likely, I wouldn’t have noticed if it was lost, but since I still have it, its now my magical toque. Its six days since I found it. Freshly laundered & I’ll sew a bright yellow or red button on the top seam so I know which is my magical toque.