Nothing But Love :: golf blogger

Carry Back

My new courier bag came by UPS yesterday from Timbuk2. I used the design-your-own feature on the website, and the price wasn't any more than ordering an in-stock bag. I realized, ripping apart the UPS box with great fervor, the dogs staring at me, terror in their eyes, that this might be an obsession ... and one which real men don't like to disclose. Maybe. But it's not like all the bags are the same brand or size or configuration or color. If the courier bags I have were all the same brand or the same kind, tnen maybe you could say that I was really sick.

I carried around a Hartmann British Tan leather briefcase for about 20 years. I still have it. It is all beat to hell; it has character; other lawyers have been telling me for years that I needed something new. And it's never a good thing to dump Diet Coke on a briefcase, even one which might need more character. One lawyer said I was giving lawyers a bad name, although I can't imagine a briefcase giving any worse name to lawyers than they already have. He should wake up and smell the coffee.

Matt and Mark had courier bags from their days when they worked at the Wilderness Shop while they were in high school. They were vigilant about keeping an eye on their bags, and I never got the opportunity to exercise my powers of eminent domain and take one of them. So, I went down to the Wilderness Shop before it closed (it is now some kind of bedding store) and found a Patagonia courier bag in bright yellow with black straps and trim.

It's big enough to carry my laptop, but it is not padded like the one I found about nine months ago ... on sale, at Cleveland Trunk. Navy blue and slightly larger than the Patagonia bag, it was not a brand name, but it would protect my laptop when travelling; at least that was my official reason for the purchase.

A few months back, I was looking for a birthday present for Jackal. I saw a bright green and black Timbuk2 courier bag with a Cuban print in a wide stripe on the bag. I know that sounds weird, but I liked it. Different. Intriguing. Smaller than the navy blue and Patagonia bags, it has a structured bottom. Being smaller, it is ideal for days I go to court with only one or two files. I bought it. Last one in the store. Or so she said. I bought it. I was using it most days and got favorable feedback from bailiffs and judges. One of the deputies manning the security checkpoint at the Justice Center asked if I got it in Cuba. See? Interesting. Conversation-starting.

While wandering through Wilson's Leather looking for Christmas presents, I spied a leather courier bag, larger than the other three bags and smelling like my old Wilson 2000 baseball glove. How could I resist, as memories flooded over me, memories associated with the smell? I couldn't resist. It was almost like feeling the chills up my spine I would get when warming up in the outfield before a game. The green expanse of outfield grass, the advertising signs on the fence beyond, DT throwing the ball over my head out of my reach. Really. Anyone would have done it.

Now, this bag that came UPS yesterday is not a new bag, but a replacement. The Jackal needed a bag for school. I told him he could take one of my bags. Never in my wildest dreams did I think he would exercise dominion over the lime-green Cuba-motif Timbuk2 bag. I had to get a replacement, you see. Had to. Everybody would. A bag of my own design. Had to. I'm using it for the first time tomorrow.

Posted by Bill at March 3, 2005 10:01 PM