Confessions of a bare head.

Oh pas! Mon chapeau!


O.K. It may not seem very important to you; but with my nearly bare head and with the cold, freezing drizzle, and snow, the loss of my hat – even temporarily – is a big deal.

You see, I have this reputation, unfortunately well deserved, of losing hats – especially since marrying Nancy. I STILL have the nice suede hat that I inherited from my dad; and I wore it a lot in the winters in California. I have several aviation “base-ball caps” that I have not lost over the years. (I have left them up at the cabin a few times – but I have not lost them.) Shortly after we were married, Nancy bought me a very nice “Spirit of St. Louis” hat at the airport restaurant in San Luis Obispo, CA. I lost the first of those when I left it at Bryan’s house in Santa Rosa after one of our visits. (Bryan tossed it after not recognizing who might have left it there.) Nancy obligingly bought me another on another visit to SLO- which I shortly left in Hydesville on a hunting trip to cousin Marilyn’s house. My third was given to me by the restaurant when they heard my story of losing the first two. (I do still have that one back in California.)

Shortly after arriving in Grenoble, the weather quickly became a bit too cold for my bare scalp; so Nancy supplied me with a nice wool scarf for my neck and a wonderful, stylish, rakish chapeau – which you have all seen in former posts here. I had only had it a couple of weeks when we went to Provence for the weekend and thought that I had left it in a restaurant – only to find the restaurant closed 10 minutes later – bang on the door – be admitted – and find no trace of the hat. Fortunately, the hat fell out of my leather jacket an hour or so later and was noticed – not by me, but by an attentive passerby and – voila! I am content.

This Tuesday morning came a repeat performance. I got up early (5:40) to go to a men’s Bible study and went to the study. Around 8:00 we said our goodbye’s and I drove away about a block when I noticed my head was quite cold. I immediately turned around and went back to the building – locked and no one around, and no number to call!!

So, I am now being punished with a cold scalp until this afternoon when, hopefully, ma cher femme will retrieve my hat where it has nicely been stashed in a cupboard for safekeeping by one of the missionaries here in Grenoble. (Good thing – it is due to snow about 4 inches according to the local forecast for the weekend.)