Saturday, November 28, 2015
Brunch at home: leftover ham, two eggs over easy, hash browns, 8 ounces of carrot juice, 8 ounces of prune juice mixed with water. Read the internet. Continued editing a new novel by Patrick: chapter 9, pass 2; chapter 10, pass 1. Snack with Patrick: french fries baked in the oven. House chores. Dinner at home with Patrick: toasted cheddar and leftover ham sandwich, split pea soup, merlot. Continued editing a new novel by Patrick: chapter 9, pass 3; chapter 10, pass 2. Snack: popcorn. Unwrapped and set up my Peak Design The Everyday Messenger and The Field Pouch in charcoal. The packaging was a delightful surprise: my charcoal messenger bag arrived in a heavy, multilayered paper bag that resembled a charcoal bag. Opening the bag was easy—just pull the red OPEN tab. Inside was just the messenger bag; no extra inner plastic bag—nice. The messenger bag looks and feels better than I had expected. The quality of the materials, the construction, the design, the colors—everything is top-notch. It took me a while to empty my current bag (Lowepro Passport Sling II in green/mica) and figure out what should be stored where in the new bag because it has lots of pockets and places for stuff so there are lots of choices. I briefly tried my Capture Pro camera clip on The Field Pouch before moving it to The Everyday Messenger. This mounting position works beautifully, and this should make changing lenses easier and safer. The Everyday Messenger is larger than my current bag, but I knew this when I bought it. I'm only 5' 5" tall, and this bag looks and feels huge on me when I carry it; Patrick said, "It's almost bigger than you," echoing my thoughts. It's also more weight than I'm used to, so I looked for things that I had been carrying that I probably don't need and put a bunch of those items in a drawer. I'm not sorry I backed the Kickstarter for The Everyday Messenger, but if I could have a bag that's 50% to 60% the size of The Everyday Messenger, perhaps in backpack form (so that not all the weight is on one shoulder which is bad for backs), I would probably like that much better. For now, I'll try the new bag for a week and see how it goes. Their Kickstarter summary: Open = July 22, 2015. I backed it on July 25. Close = September 20, 2015. Successfully raised $4,869,472 USD with 17,029 backers. I received my product on November 25, 2015 (two months and five days following close).