3 October 2000

 

Backpack Fitting and Premises

My backpacking expedition is in jeopardy, the cause of which causes me to question two premises.

Background:  the backpacking trip is in jeopardy because after spending the entire evening getting the rest of the provisions, getting everything laid out, showing Callie how to pack her new pack and packing my own, I discovered after we were all done (about midnight) that the people at Whole Earth had not fitted her new pack properly.  The load lifters on her lovely Arc'Teryx Bora 62 were not coming off the shoulders at a 45 degree angle -- more like 25 degrees -- making it impossible to adjust the pack so that the weight is properly on the hips and not the shoulders.  The people at Whole Earth who fitted this pack should have seen this, and moved her to a bigger torso size (the shoulder straps are adjustable to a degree, but I couldn't get them adjusted to compensate well enough to get the proper angle -- probably the medium will be TOO big and she'll require the small hipbelt and shoulder harness assembly, but that's why they make them interchangeable). Turns out that they didn't even measure her torso length (I did last night and it's in that gray area between needing a medium and a small, which surprised me given the fact Callie's tiny).  So I guess the pack needs to go back to them tomorrow, and we'll try to go to REI and let me do the whole fitting process myself, which I guess I should have done in the first place.  Or should I?

I mention this has caused me to question two premises:

The first:  the notion that if I want something done right, I should in damn near all occasions do it myself.

The second:  the notion that this is an unhealthy attitude, because people can't be as bad as that premise makes them out to be.

Whole Earth is the best outfitter in Houston, probably Texas.  I sent Callie to them because, honestly, they should know more about fitting packs than I do as a backpacker, since I go backpacking and they sell backpacking gear -- and it's that whole idea of time as a precious commodity creeping in:  why should I use my precious time to fit her a pack at REI when these guys should be able to do it more quickly and, honestly, better than I could. 

Except it turns out they couldn't and didn't, taking me back to my first premise.  Had I done it myself, I wouldn't be having this dilemma.  I guess tomorrow we'll unload the pack, see if Callie can get a refund on it, and go to REI and start all over in the process.  We could probably just go exchange the thing for a medium at Whole Earth, but at this point why not get it cheaper at REI if I'm going to have to do the fitting anyway?  It is annoying and frustrating (remember how Newt Gingrich used always to use double predicate adjectives in that manner, especially when he called various Democratic activities insulting and demeaning?) to have to do this, and it scrambles the trip plans because I really wanted to get out of here Wednesday.  I'd cancel the trip altogether at this point, except I have business meetings in Tulsa and Bartlesville and this trip was structured around those.  If I just do those, I have effectively wasted a lot of precious time on driving when I could have just flown up there, which will also annoy me.

I'm about to abandon that second notion that somehow it's unhealthy for me to think that I can do most things better than most people.  I'm coming to the conclusion it's not unhealthy for me to think that, it's just a realistic assessment of what I run across constantly, whether it's DSL service, backpacking outfitters, or the woman at the grocery store who can't figure out how to sack my groceries properly (or quickly).  When I run across people who are competent, I'll start celebrating them as the rare cases that they are. 

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