The hunt

So the hunt is on for a new barn coat. Alas, my dearly devoted winter jacket is soon to depart this world. Purchased while I was still in college (yes, a decade ago), my somewhat-too-big but fairly-cute-and-warm ski parka, finally lost a long battle with its zipper and will no longer close without the aid of a prosthetic, such as a safety pin. So now I'm on the lookout for a new parka. I'm planning to hit the clearance racks at the sporting goods stores (one thing great about Colorado, no shortage of stores that sell winter coats). Things are made a bit more difficult by a few things- one, that this year pastels and white seem to be quite popular (yeah, that pink coat will look fab with the bright green and brown smears that will appear as soon as I step out of the car), and the fact that coats this year all seem somewhat short- they want to stop with half or more of your rear uncovered, whereas I think it's kind of nice in cold weather to have my fanny snug. Also it has to have the 2 way zipper so that I can unzip it from the bottom when I'm riding if I do manage to find the slightly longer parka, and I like the ones that come in a bit at the waist, as opposed to doing the ice cream cone impression where one's torso is a giant ball perched atop skinny breech clad legs. The neat thing though is the innovations that have come along in the last ten years - today's coats are much more lightweight and have some extra useful pockets and sleeves and flaps that velcro shut. So I poked around online and I'm thinking maybe a columbia miracle mountain parka (comes in black, which is a pretty good color for dirt)...but we'll see what I find.