My winter coat has had a minor tear along a seam near the right pocket since earlier this winter. I noticed it when I first picked it up at the beginning of winter.

And I probably should have grabbed some needles and thread at that point, given the area a couple of stitches and moved on. A stitch in time saves nine, after all. As the winter has gone on, that non reinforcement of the loose threads at that tear has inched that gap wider and wider. To the point it almost became confused as the pocket, just without zippers.

I wear the coat for maybe 30 minutes on average on a day, so it’s one of those things I would see, go I should do something about that, and then fail to do that after the coat is set down indoors and repeat the cycle the next time it was worn.

In February, as I was taking groceries in from Gary’s on one of the brutally cold winter days, my hands were full, I was trying to make my way to my ground floor apartment.

And that hole on my coat which is now about hand size catches on the closing door knob in just the right way to stretch that seam even longer. Thankfully, the tear continued straight down the seam itself.

And suddenly, that minor two to three stitches on the coat became upwards of 20 to fix. What might have been a disguisable blemish of one or two reinforced stitches, was now a lot harder to hide.

And I have to pull on home economics classes from two decades ago now on how to properly sew. A class that I wasn’t necessarily an A student in when it came to sewing. I was a much better cook or able to follow recipes.

Cut to me on my couch having acquired a sewing kit, watching A Marx Brothers comedy “A Day at the Races” as I’m trying to thread a needle and failing for five minutes straight. Clearly mimicking one of the stretched too long jokes in the comedy. I think I have the correct amount of string for this mend only to find I have too much, the thread is tangling at different points on the areas I’m trying to sew and somehow ends up knotted around the needle. I’ve definitely rolled a 1, as we would say in Dungeons and Dragons parlance, on this particular skill check. And I give up on that attempt and undo some of the damage as best I can.

But there is one thing I am, it is tenacious. And I had no evening activity to stand in my way, and another bobbin of thread. We are going to see this coat mended before bed.

My second attempt I fixed a lot of issues that occurred with the first. The mend is still slightly garish to look at, not blending in with the original seam.

But the coat’s interior is again protected from the elements, just as it’s time to probably put that coat aside for another winter.

One of my “Doctor Who” hooded sweatshirts has a pocket that has a tear around it. I think I’m just going to leave that one alone.