Water Bottle.
Taken at face value, it's just a water bottle.
A 32oz Nalgene water bottle with the Skratch Labs logo on it. I got it on clearance a couple years ago, because I like Skratch's orange hydration mix, needed a few more dollars to get free shipping on my order, and hey, cheap water bottle.
That cheap water bottle has led me to meet and have some conversations with some cool people.
For instance, when I was in school in Mississippi, I brought it every day to replace what the oppressive, liquid air was drawing out of me. A guy in my class asked me if I rode, which made me wonder how he guessed, since my shaven legs were hidden under my uniform. He pointed at the bottle. As it turns out, Bobby and I rode together more than a few times, and that connection led to me meeting other riders in the area. This series of connections led to my time in my least-favorite part of the country being much more enjoyable.
A couple months after that I was sitting in the Mighty Mite shack after a long day of shepherding my group of miscreants around the mountain. Physically drained and more than a little dehydrated, I was downing the remnants of the bottle when a fellow coach remarked, "Hey! I like Skratch too. My brother sends me huge boxes of the stuff." This led to a conversation where I realized Hanelore was the brother of a very well-published cycling photographer, who travels the world with his wife shooting World Tour road races. I know someone who is related to someone who knows a lot of famous professional cyclists. It's like I'm almost a pro myself, so I should probably get an agent or something.
Without that bottle, these conversations wouldn't have occurred. The relationships would have remained in their very narrow contexts, and stopped there. "I'm in this school, too" or "I like skiing." A amazing what a few white logos on a grey Nalgene bottle led to. When I think about it, there are a million different little things cyclists use to identify themselves as part of a tribe, kinda like some lesbians with rings of keys hanging from their belts. Some are intentional, some aren't. In this case, it was just a cheap water bottle, a thing I toted along for utility rather than advertising purposes.
Since then, I've acquired a couple more when I needed to round off an order. Maybe they'll lead to another cycling connection, which is always a good thing.
A 32oz Nalgene water bottle with the Skratch Labs logo on it. I got it on clearance a couple years ago, because I like Skratch's orange hydration mix, needed a few more dollars to get free shipping on my order, and hey, cheap water bottle.
That cheap water bottle has led me to meet and have some conversations with some cool people.
For instance, when I was in school in Mississippi, I brought it every day to replace what the oppressive, liquid air was drawing out of me. A guy in my class asked me if I rode, which made me wonder how he guessed, since my shaven legs were hidden under my uniform. He pointed at the bottle. As it turns out, Bobby and I rode together more than a few times, and that connection led to me meeting other riders in the area. This series of connections led to my time in my least-favorite part of the country being much more enjoyable.
A couple months after that I was sitting in the Mighty Mite shack after a long day of shepherding my group of miscreants around the mountain. Physically drained and more than a little dehydrated, I was downing the remnants of the bottle when a fellow coach remarked, "Hey! I like Skratch too. My brother sends me huge boxes of the stuff." This led to a conversation where I realized Hanelore was the brother of a very well-published cycling photographer, who travels the world with his wife shooting World Tour road races. I know someone who is related to someone who knows a lot of famous professional cyclists. It's like I'm almost a pro myself, so I should probably get an agent or something.
Without that bottle, these conversations wouldn't have occurred. The relationships would have remained in their very narrow contexts, and stopped there. "I'm in this school, too" or "I like skiing." A amazing what a few white logos on a grey Nalgene bottle led to. When I think about it, there are a million different little things cyclists use to identify themselves as part of a tribe, kinda like some lesbians with rings of keys hanging from their belts. Some are intentional, some aren't. In this case, it was just a cheap water bottle, a thing I toted along for utility rather than advertising purposes.
Since then, I've acquired a couple more when I needed to round off an order. Maybe they'll lead to another cycling connection, which is always a good thing.
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