Changing of the Coat

Did you know that, in the winter, the Royal Guard outside of Buckingham Palace wear kind of all grey uniforms? None of that bright, flashy, red and black stuff. Basically they wear stuff the same color as the winter weather in London.

The same seems to happen in Minnesota in the dead of winter. People go from a broad spectrum of colors of coats to almost exclusively black and grey.

Now, if you live somewhere like Paris or New York City, you're probably used to people only dressing in black. Which means that nothing changes no matter what time of year it is.

In Baltimore, the weather never quite got cold enough for most people to have to resort to the all-black coats. There are a decent number of colors. You see browns and blues and reds and all sorts of colors all year 'round.

Before I left Baltimore, I got myself a brown leather jacket which is relatively well-lined, so with a scarf and gloves it was perfect for winter weather out there. After I moved to Minnesota, I learned that it was to become my fall jacket. I can sort of wear it until November most years, but that's about it.

And, happily, for the past few weeks, we've had "East Coast winter" - with highs back up in the 40s. And I've gotten to wear that brown jacket a bunch in the past month.

Then the temp dropped this week. And, in response to the return of January temperatures (today's high was 16), I reached into the closet this morning for my semi-black, well-lined, trenchcoat-style coat.

As I looked at the people hurrying along the sidewalks and running across the streets, I noticed we were all back in the same uniform of dark, drab colors.

Unfortunately, we weren't in London to enjoy it.