Armor in anticlimatic

What sort of armor do you wear, and what buffs do you get from it?

If you live in the city, dressing well, or dressing with a specific style, can have various intended effects, not only on one’s self, but also the people we interact with. Makeup, is a type of armor, with similar effect. I myself am just preoccupied with battling the elements up here on the moon, with no one really to impress or compete with on a style front.

The weather shift has prompted a retooling of my armor set for work, and daily purposes. It’s been so long since that were necessary, or possible, that my mid-winter gear, as opposed to my severe-winter gear which I had been wearing since December, was buried and dusty wedged into a crack in the back of my cab. Had to shake the creases out and clean out the pockets.

My severe-winter gear consists of a massive down jacket that is perfectly warm in up to -20F degree weather, a cap, a cotton face mask that covers my nose and mouth (with vent holes for each), a pair of light gloves, and a pair of medium gloves over top of those, thermal leggings under my usual work pants, wool socks, and thermal boots designed to be extra warm. The hood on the jacket can be worn over the cap for extra heat capture. I feel a bit like a giant marshmallow, but the whole world is a giant marshmallow at that time usually, so it feels appropriate.

Once the temperature breaks 20F degrees, as it did this week for the first time since 2024, I pivot to my mid-winter gear, which has the following adjustments:

The single massive down jacket is swapped for a triple layer of a flannel, a lite jacket (like a spring jacket), and a warm vest over that for core heat. I swap the two layers of gloves, for the single layer of medium gloves. Wool socks are swapped for lite socks, and thermal leggings are not worn underneath my work pants. The face mask is also put away, and the ear flaps on my hat are tucked back underneath the back of it again.

The purpose of this retooling is to recover some of the dexterity lost in the more cumbersome severe-winter garb. One less pair of gloves lets my fingers be more precise, and less cloth covering me overall opens my senses back up to the world, which is great not only for more accurate data collection, but also overall enjoyment with the experience on a sensual level.

Once first-spring kicks in, I’ll downgrade to my lite winter gear: the vest will be forgone, leaving only a flannel and a lite spring jacket. Cap with ears exposed, still. Medium duty gloves swapped for lite duty gloves. Thermal boots are swapped for cooler doc martins, and lite socks are swapped for wool socks to compensate for the drastic heat loss just a little.

Once Spring proper arrives, anytime the temperature reaches above 50F degrees at some point that day, the cap is forgone, the flannel is foregone, and pants are replaced with shorts and slip-on knee pads, with my lightest pair of work shoes. Still the lite jacket, for shady moments.

Once Summer hits, it’s T shirt, shorts, and the lightest shoes I can find for the long haul of +60 degree days. Then, come autumn, we begin assembling in reverse order as winter closes in.