Thoughts on Gloves

Years ago, I picked up a half-dozen ladies' suede gardening gloves at my grocery store, of all places.  They fit my size 8.5 hands beautifully, and were long enough to cover my wrists, a detail glove manufacturers seem to neglect.  Finding these gloves was like finding a missing link.  I loved them, and used them both outside and inside during our renovation projects.  Invariably, they wore out, and a few seams failed, but they were washable and I managed a few good years' worth of duty out of them.

It's hard to find heavy-duty ladies' work-gloves that actually fit my somewhat large hands.  Whenever I happen upon a garden center or hardware store, I always have a peek at the gardening gloves.  The other day, at Reno Depot, I spied a pair of Gardena gardening gloves.  The price was marked at $7.96, which seemed reasonable considering the horrendous mark-up on most Gardena products, and although they weren't perfect, they fit, the leather was soft, and I figured I'd get a good season of work out of them.  Since Eric was with me and is always the voice of reason, he suggested I buy 2 pairs.  That's how Eric rolls.

Alas, once we made it to the cash and the sale was rung up, we were surprised to see a total of $32!  Quebec consumer protection act states that if an item under $10 scans incorrectly from the sticker price, the first item is free, and one other multiple item is scanned in at the lower price.  This is a regular occurrence at the grocery store, where, if you're observant enough, you can occasionally score free merchandise.  We left the store with big smiles on our faces and a spring in our step.  It really doesn't take much, does it?

So, the other day, I was weeding and somehow managed to misplace one pair of perfectly new gloves.  Now, this isn't the first time this sort of thing has happened, and I had an inkling where they might be found.  Of course, they were at the bottom of our garbage can, unceremoniously dumped in with a pile of dandelions.  They were soggy, but at least I found them.  We weren't off to a stellar start, these gloves and I.

During one of my recent forays to blow a wallet-full of Canadian Tire money, I found one pair, one lonely pair, of the same garden gloves I had purchased at my grocery store years ago.  They were a bit faded and looked like they might have fallen behind a stock-shelf and been forgotten for a few seasons, but once I put them on, I breathed a sigh of relief.  My perfect garden gloves, the gold-standard by which all other gloves have since been measured.  The fit is wonderful, the suede is pliable, and if I ever see this pair of gloves again, I'm buying out the store's inventory.

And you can be sure this pair won't end up on the bottom of the garbage can, that's for sure.  I'm protecting these at all costs.