the coat

My buddy Tom has gone full-on Korean with his concern for one's outward appearance, so he has insisted, over the past month (yes, that means we talked about this while I was on my walk), on "buying" me a new winter coat to replace the old, torn-up coat that I've used for years. Being a man of taste, but also an opportunist, Tom seized upon a coat he saw while passing by a street vendor. The coat's design was very similar to that of my old, tattered coat. He bought it and mailed it to me. I put "buying" in quotes above because Tom wasn't doing this as a gift: I had to pay for my new coat. I got the pillow-shaped package this past Monday, wondering at what it was because I'd already forgotten that Tom had said he would mail the thing to me. I picked the package up at my building's front desk; halfway up the elevator run to my floor, I suddenly remembered what the package's contents would be. I later wired Tom cash for the coat and the postage. Here's the unwrapping:

neatly folded like a parachute

Or is it, perhaps, a tent?

I have short T. rex arms, but the coat's sleeves are even shorter.

laid out in recognizable coat-like form

Aside from the sleeves, it seems to fit.

Tom warned that I'd see something on the packaging proving that his wife—who did the actual mailing—was a "dork." I couldn't find anything out of order except for my surname, which the Missus had listed as "Kang." So, I'm Kevin Kang to her, I guess.

This was Tom's second try at finding me a coat. When he called me while I was on my walk (I was just arriving in southern Choongju when he called), he and his son had stopped at the street vendor's place and found a good-looking brown coat. Unfortunately, Tom discovered that that coat had some writing on the back of it, and I told Tom that that would be a deal-breaker for me. I'm okay with writing and images on a tee shirt (especially if they're my own designs), but on something like a coat, I prefer the design to be conservative and nondescript. Tom said he was the same way about coats and jackets, and that shopping trip proved to be a bust. But the coat I have now came from the exact same street vendor, Tom told me later. I guess the guy has a pretty constant turnover of products: Tom saw this coat when he passed by the vendor again a few weeks later.

Now, none of this is going to prompt me to throw away my old coat. I've been planning for a long time to take that coat in for repairs, and I'll do so soon. That said, I like Tom's coat, and I aim to take it for a spin on several long walks I have planned before the heavy snows come (if they come at all). So stay tuned for an equipment review.