September 19th, 2019

Our next lovely model is Tim, sporting the latest in fashion accessories. Yes, his water bottle carrier has a padded, adjustable strap, an insulated holder and not one but two pockets.  He has chosen the classic, always fashionable, basic black which, as we all know, goes with everything.

As I've mentioned in countless other posts (ad naseum by now I'm sure) almost every work day, roughly half way through Tim closes up shop and goes for a walk.  It's important to get some exercise of course, but also to have that break in the day.  If I am home, I go with him.  Usually we take the same 3 ish mile loop.   

And because we still have at least two active brain cells between us, we are smart enough to hydrate, especially in the summer time.  However, because I am so lazy I would rather be thirsty than carry something, Tim, up 'til now, has been kind enough to carry his water bottle and share it with me.   Ok, it's not actually laziness, it's just a weird thing I have about carrying things. I absolutely hate carrying anything when I'm walking. Not just dislike it, I hate it.   So Tim, who refers to himself as "the packmule" usually does any carrying necessary.  But the thing of it is, sometimes I walk by myself, sometimes I hike with Joy and I still dislike carrying things so much that I don't bring water.  This is not a new thing, by the way, I've always been this way.  So while it is entirely my own fault, the truth of the matter is, that I always end up dehydrated and that's not good for anybody.

I suspect that it's partly because I am so clumsy, I know that I need both hands just in case I need to steady myself after stumbling or protect myself if I fall (which can go wrong. One particular broken wrist comes to mind).  Then too, whenever I'm out and about, I'm also taking pictures.  I need both hands for that.  And if I have to take time out to set down whatever I'm carrying, the photo I wanted to take could be long gone.  Sometimes you have to be quickquick to capture the shot.  The rest of the reason why I hate it so much?  I honestly don't know.  I just know it's true.

Back when we lived in Colorado, I also walked and hiked all over the place with no water bottle.  Drove people crazy.  Also was not a good idea. With the altitude and the dry air that Colorado is famous for, staying hydrated is even more important.  So eventually I found a water bottle carrier and it was a sort of compromise.  It somehow snugged around the top of the water and then looped up over my shoulder. It was a very simple affair meant to be used specifically with plastic water bottles.

Somehow that water bottle carrier was lost in the move.  No great loss.  We have moved away from plastic water bottles anyway.  Now we have some very nice washable water bottles.

They work really well, they are easy to wash out and keep the water incredibly cold.  But they are heavier and kind of a pain in the butt to carry around.  Especially with my very uncooperative hands to say nothing of my bad attitude about carrying things in general. 

So we decided that we would see about finding new water bottle carriers.  And what's more, we would buy local because we really believe in supporting our local businesses. It's what we ALWAYS try to do. Shop Local. Win/win. Great Idea, right?  Well as it turns out, easier said than done.

We looked in every shop in Venice that we thought might possibly have such a thing.  All of them, each and every one of them, had water bottles.  But not one single store had water bottle carriers of any sort.  What the actual heck?

So we traveled a little father afield.  Sarasota isn't our town, but it's still in our county and it's a larger town with more shopping options so off we went.  I looked on line and it appeared that places like Dick's Sporting Goods and oddly, Bed, Bath and Beyond  (and a few other stores) carried quite the variety of water bottle carriers. Hurrah! We battled terrible drivers, odd traffic patterns, road construction and insufficient parking but finally arrived at a plaza that had these stores!  Bigger Yay!

We walked through all of the stores, which meant schlepping up and down the entire length of the enormous shopping plaza in absolute killer heat to no avail.  Once again, loads of water bottles but not one water bottle carrier.  Doesn't that seem odd?  Does everyone who buys these myriad water bottles just carry them around in their hands all  of the time?  I haven't really noticed that happening.  What I have seen however, are so very many people with a Starbucks cup of some kind in one hand and their phone in the other.  So the population in general is currently not actually hands-free.  If they trip or stumble  it's gonna hurt.  But no matter.  That was just an observation on my part and not pertinent to this story.

Back to the point.

So we killed an entire afternoon and came home empty-handed. Kind of ironic.  That is the point here. We are trying to be empty-handed while hiking, walking, trekking, whatever it is that we are doing out and about.  So once again, we resorted to shopping online. Dang.  Tim placed the order and the very next day the water bottle carriers arrived.  

Tim's is black and mine is blue but otherwise they are identical.  Our water bottles fit perfectly in them and I love that there are little zipper pockets so I can also carry a chapstick or tissues, a few bucks and house key without having to deal with my purse.  A purse is NOT something I want to carry when hiking or taking a walk.  The carriers aren't bulky, they aren't heavy and I love that I can wear mine cross body if I want so it doesn't keep trying to slide off my shoulder.


My only regret is that we could not buy them locally.  Otherwise, Mission Accomplished!