Glub, Glub, Glub
We have had over 12 inches of rain so far in August and the local weather guys don’t think the stalled front to the North of us is going to move out before September.
As a result of Helene down in the Bay of Campeche, we can expect another major rain event to affect the coast next week. The forecast shows thunderstorms predicted every day.
There are a lot of people on the other side of that front who want and need rain, but it is stuck down here. I expect there will be mushrooms growing in the pots with my Mother’s flowering cacti, which may rot.
You can’t keep the bugs out as they head for dry ground. In the areas where there are still snakes, people will see them on their porches.
Raincoats are worthless in the heat, as your choice of soaking is rain or sweat. I’m ready to put my wallet in a plastic bag and leave the umbrellas and raincoats behind.
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Driducks. They’re sold at most sporting goods stores that cater to hunters (i.e, every sporting goods store in your area). They’re made out of Tyvek (err, “non-woven polypropylene”) and do a good job of letting water vapor out and keeping water out too. They work quite a bit better than any supposedly “breathable” rain gear, with the possible exception of the (very expensive) EVENT Teflon-matrix rain gear, but a set costs $15 at my local Big Five vs several hundred dollars for EVENT gear. Only downside: They’re not very durable.
That said, your plan doesn’t even cost $15, so maybe it’s the best one :).
I remember sporting goods stores. We had a few around here staffed by people who knew what they were doing, but they were ‘malwarted’, so it’s ‘Net time. They may still exist in Pensacola, or possible somewhere to the East with other mythical creatures like bookstores, music stores, bakeries, nurseries, etc.
Not understanding. Perhaps “hunting supply stores”? Or do people no longer hunt in North Florida? Or do North Florida Malwarts carry the long guns, bass boat accessories, hip boots, duck calls, and the other hunting-and-fishing related stuff that keep “sporting goods” stores open in Louisiana?
I didn’t know such a thing as a real sporting goods store existed until I moved out of the South, but I find it amazing that you have none of the “sporting goods” stores in North Florida that we had in Louisiana. Malwart simply doesn’t carry most of the specialty hunting stuff that hunters need…
They carry long guns and ammo as well as cheap and worthless other things. Pawn shops carry handguns. Boats are sold by separate marine stores, and are generally the salt water variety.
You can probably still find the old style sporting goods stores in the north county, above I-10 and southern Alabama, although it is more likely they will be ‘general stores’, more like old hardware stores than a Bass Pro Shop or Cabela’s..
Malwarts destroys small local businesses, and always has.
I’m ready to put my wallet in a plastic bag and leave the umbrellas and raincoats behind.
i keep a raincoat and umbrella, and use them on those few occasions, like weddings and funerals, where it would be a major social faux pas to look like a drowned rat. i’ve also been known to use them in situations where i would truly have to worry about hypothermia.
why invite heat stroke and lightning strikes unnecessarily?
I have a Gore-Tex rain jacket and it doesn’t help. It’s better than my heavyweight rain jacket, but you still sweat in it.
Yeah, I have a ‘golf’ umbrella for those events, but my hat is most of the ‘protection’ I need. If it was cold, I have a Land’s End slicker with a fleece lining, but that isn’t appropriate for July and August.
What we really need is a rain repulsion device, but it would probably attract a lightning discharge, so cotton clothes and boat shoes are the best choice overall.
Temporary solution? Ziplock bag for your electronics and wallet. I put everybody’s into a plastic bag when we visit the beach. Water and sand in your cell phone affects quality of service. 😛 But then again, maybe we should try and learn from doggies…
“Quality of service”? From a cell phone company? Surely you jest 😈
The doggie method requires loose skin and hair, so I’m out of luck.
Bryan, Gore-Tex doesn’t work. Period. When you look at the actual science, Gore-Tex requires the humidity inside the rain jacket to equal the condensation point of the air outside the rain jacket. This condenses the humidity on the inner polyester coating, which then evaporates it to the outside via the pores in the teflon mesh. Well, given that the air outside the rain jacket has a condensation point of somewhere around 99.9F, you can see why it never actually moves any vapor in your climate :twisted:.
EVENT and Driducks’ non-woven PE fabric use a different mechanism. They omit the polyester coating entirely, allowing water vapor to pass right through the fine mesh of the fabric, which is however too fine to allow liquid water to come through. They work *much* better than Gore-Tex, which is 99.9% hype. Well, while they’re clean, anyhow. Once the pores get clogged with dirt they’re useless. But that’s when you wash them.
Well, I pretty much figured out that Gore-Tex didn’t work by wearing the sucker and getting sweat-soaked, so I stopped wearing it. I forget how I got it, probably a gift, but I know I didn’t buy it, especially after looking at what the thing costs retail. For the prices there should have been a couple of fitting involved and my name embroidered on the inside.
Driducks seem to have two types, so I may try the more expensive, but apparently more durable type, or just start wearing a wetsuit.
One. Word. Driza-Bone
The saved the skin of me and my men in Cambodia, and work great down under! 😉 😀
Hey… they were good enough for your Prez and the other APEC Leaders when they were here. Just sayin… LOL
Oh, and top it off with an Akubra Hat, worn by world leaders and most of Hollywood for decades! LOL
Hmmm… The only thing I kept (that was worth keeping) from my army days, was my slouch hat, made by Akubra. Still serves me well. 🙂 Well, I kept one other thing, a damned good survival/rescue knife and sheath! 😉
If I was further North it would work, but it is just too humid for waxed cotton down here. Yep, Akubra makes nice hats, and I have a fur felt Resistol that would work. but my Tilley is a lot cooler for this climate, and shed water well.
I have a waxed cotton fedora for the winter that works a treat.
I think that just wearing cotton and ignoring rain is the best solution for the interim.
Bryan, the Driducks aren’t really durable regardless of which one you buy. FIgure you’ll spend $20 a season on rain gear with them. They can be patched with duct tape but no sealer will stick to them due to the polyethylene fiber being very slippery (basically the same stuff soda bottles are made of) — the seams are heat-sealed.
I learned about Driducks for backpacking, because they’re lighter than any other rain gear you can buy and actually work reasonably well when you’re exerting yourself as well as when you’re in camp. Their sizing is very large, but that’s good because it allows them to ventilate well, they don’t have any actual vents. The cheaper one actually ventilates better due to the button closures and the lack of elastic at the wrist and waistband. They’re sold around here at hunting supply stores (what you called “sporting goods stores” there in Floriduh before, apparently, they all went out of business). Their Achilles heel is, again, durability. A week’s worth of hiking and they start looking like duct tape jackets. Thus why I invested in a REI EVENT jacket, which works better than Gore-Tex. Usually the only place that gets wet is my lower arms, mostly because of water wicking up the sleeve. But for around town, where you aren’t getting snagged by bushes and brambles, the Dri-Ducks work even better than EVENT (I *never* got wet in the Dri-Ducks) and are decidedly much cheaper.
I used to have a shelter half/poncho that worked well for walking around, but I got rid of it because I couldn’t take the odor. I don’t know what caused it to smell, but nothing would reduce it to an acceptable level.
I’ll probably give the Driducks a try, since it won’t break my budget.