Jack’s pants

 

Some background:  Jack goes through pants like no one else I’ve ever know.  We’re one month in and here’s what’s happened so far. 

We packed most of our stuff in Boston and mailed it to Seattle a few weeks before the wedding, so it was easy to forget the specifics of what we packed.  Jack had decided to bring nylon shorts to double as swim trunks.   As we double checked our stuff the morning we left for Iceland,he realized he couldn’t find them.  He got a pair from his family and we left.  The next day, we swam in the Blue Lagoon and he promptly forgot his wet swim suit/shorts in the changing room.  A few days later, he realized he actually had the original pair of shorts in his bag all along.

Then, in Paris, one morning he found that his docker-like pants had mysteriously ripped in such a way as to become unwearable.  So, we had the pleasure of shopping for jeans for him in the enormous flea market north of Paris.  It involved trying on jean behind a van in a market and a failed attempt at haggling.   The jeans look nice though and I had a good time.

A few days later Jack had yet another incident with his “pants” (using the British word for underwear).  On our last night in Paris, he hand washed a pair of allegedly quick-drying travelsmith underwear and hung it up to dry near our window.  In the morning, I awoke to find him using our brand new spool of dental floss and a coat hanger to try to retrieve the flighty pants from inaccessible interior courtyard they had fallen too, 7-stories down.  I tried my hand at it as well, but we were met by strong challenges from the wind, the length of our arms (not enough) and the fact that the pants had taken shelter on a metal grate.  It was much easier to catch the hanger on the grate than the pants.  It was also difficult to unhook the coat hanger from the grate.  In fact, when we gave up to go catch our train, I couldn’t detach the hanger from the grate so I decided that the tidiest solution would be to just snap off the floss by pulling really hard.  That’s easier said than done though, because instead of breaking, the floss lifted the entire metal grate up and flipped it over.  Alas the pants still eluded capture.

Then, a few days ago, when we came out of the woods after 4 hours of hiking, he squatted down and his light weight pants split right down the middle.  Sadly I am not permitted to post the picture I took.  Note: this is funny because Jack’s not fat.  Oh and because we had to walk another hot 16km before we could shower and change clothes. 

Stay tuned for more updates on Jack’s pants.  His fancy REI pants are doing well, but we’ll have to keep an eye on the flea market jeans.