X Marks the spot

For many years, I’ve worn a now battered old dark brown Tilley T3 on the trail. But it’s heavy canvas, it’s hot, it soaks up water, and it doesn’t work especially well under a hood, which in a real downpour it can’t simply replace. So I recently bought an Outdoor Research Sun Runner Cap. It’s light and airy worn primarily for its visor, and when I deploy the cape it will serve to keep my delicate shell-pink ears from turning red and falling off.

But it has that big “OR” on its crown, which I hate. So I began thinking about how to obscure this particular bit of advertising. Here’s what I decided on:

It’s a patch representing a signal flag. In alpha-numeric, it stands for “M”, which is handy, given my first name—and of course, “M” is what sweet B calls me. The design is also a squared up version of the Scottish flag, which I think is especially nice. (The “What?” in this blog’s title, after all, is Scotland.) But my favorite aspect of the flag is that, displayed alone, it means, “My vessel is stationary and not under way.”

I’m into metaphor.