Bus commuting

[scarlettina]

I started commuting by bus last March, when it was already beginning to be lighter in the morning. This morning as I look out the window by my breakfast table, it's dark and wet and cold. I don't have to leave for at least another hour but, well, I suspect I'm not going to enjoy this very much. I need proper boots. I need a warmer raincoat (and I've been looking for one but haven't found it yet). I am not properly outfitted for this commute.

Blech.

Comments

[fjm.livejournal.com]

When I was a bus commuter the key change I made was a longer coat, because my knees got so cold.

[ironymaiden]

I don't have a warmer raincoat, I just wear an insulating layer under it. That way I can adjust from flannel to vest to fleece to fake down jacket warmth without buying a fleet of raincoats.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I've thought about your solution and I've used it a couple of times. I have a fleece that I can wear under the coat and it works, no question. But it also makes me feel like I look like the Stay-Puft Marshamallow Man. :-) Sometimes I'm OK with that if warmth is my only priority; sometimes . . . not so much. But I haven't spent money on a new coat yet; if my pattern holds true, I probably won't in the end. We'll see. It's beginning to get cold enough that I may end up wearing my regular winter coat before I find a warm rain coat anyway. I DO need to do something about appropriate footwear, though.

[janetl.livejournal.com]

I wanted a rain repellant, slightly warmer coat, and was astonished to find one at that-discount-place-that-isn't-TJ Max. (Can't for the life of me think what the name is.) It's not a raincoat, more of a parka-ish thing. I would like an actual raincoat, because it's nice to have something to the knee or so for a really windy, rainy day. I had a wonderful wool gabardine one that I scored at Costco. It wore like iron, but had enormous 80s style padded shoulders, so it went to Goodwill with many potential years left in it.

I long for boots, but my shoe size is so far off the middle of the bell curve that manufacturers aren't bothering to make any for me. Sigh.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

With regard to boots, it's not my shoe size that's the problem; it's my calf size. My calves are simply too wide for most conventional boots that offer any style at all. I may end up getting goofy rubber boots that will serve for weather, and just change into shoes at the office like I used to when I lived in NYC. It's not optimal, but it's certainly a utilitarian choice.

[janetl.livejournal.com]

Me, too, on the calf size. When that variable is added to my extra-wide shoe size, I can't find anything. I'd love to at least be able to buy some goofy rubber boots for really wet days, but to get the shoe size wide enough, they'd be so long that I'd trip over the toes. I can buy hiking-ish boots that are wide, but they don't tend to be waterproof. Where do the manufacturers think people are hiking, anyway?!

[steve98052.livejournal.com]

Marshall's? Ross?

[janetl.livejournal.com]

I think it was Ross Dress For Less. They had exactly one coat in that style, and it just happened to be in my size.

[amheriksha.livejournal.com]

For boots, I can recommend Tretorn for wider calf rain galoshes: http://us.tretorn.com/womens/c/30000/ (I only have a pair that go to my mid calf, so not sure how their taller boots are.) I also found some rubber ones at Target that were cute and fit over my calf, but the actual foot part was too tight. The Tretorns are a little wider than normal American boots, so my feet fit nicely.

For actual knee high boots, I actually have gotten a few pairs from Avenue. They aren't necessarily rain boots, but they seem to protect my feet and calves from normal seattle rain fairly nicely.

[steve98052.livejournal.com]

What I could use that would get me to commute more by bus would be a park and ride lot that had a non-zero quantity of unoccupied spaces during commute hours. (Bus stops closer than a mile would help too.)