The Power of Plastic Pants

In the tunnel at Merlo Field.

Do you ever see sports on TV and the weather is terrible and you see the fans in the stands and think, “Who would sit and watch sports in horrible weather? I would never do that.”

I used to think that, too.

But last Tuesday night I sat in steady rain for two hours to watch soccer. And I stayed dry-ish thanks to the magic of plastic.

Timbers

A couple of weeks earlier it occurred to me that a day would come where I’d be watching soccer in the rain. I mentioned to my ticket partner that we should go to the Columbia store and get plastic pants. The flagship store is right across the street from the office.

We ran in there and after a few questions (“What sort of activity will you being doing?” “Uh, watching Timbers games.”) a nice man took me right to the plastic pants.

“These look so dorky,” I said. I’m not sure why I expected waterproof pants to be sexy or why I’d waste any time worried about vanity after the axe picture.

He explained that these were made for things like golfing in the rain and they can be folded up and then whipped out over your regular clothes if it rains.

I bought them and brought them to Seattle where it did rain. I put them on and they fit just fine but our seats were protected so no rain fell on me. They did help keep me warm.

Coach Spencer, glad to see me at the game.

One thing about soccer is that in addition to the actual league games, there are also exhibition games and side competitions. I don’t understand it all myself and I don’t feel like doing the homework. I’m sure I’ll understand it all by the end of the season. Tuesday night’s game was for the U.S. Open Cup.

I think there’s a little rain protection when we get into our seats at the stadium but that won’t be ready until later this month so the game was at Merlo Field which is at University of Portland with no cover at all.

It wasn’t terrible. My rain gear kept me dry although the metal seat was cold and damp under my delicate heinie. Only my hands stayed wet and were pruned after two hours.

But we won and it was a fun game. April 14 is first home game.