The mystery of the rainbow cap

[rsc]

As some of you already know, I own a rainbow-patterned baseball-style cap, which I like to wear on appropariate and/or festive occasions (or even just out and about to keep the sun off). I bought it in Provincetown many a year ago. It's gotten a little stained and battered over the years, but there's plenty of wear left in it. Or so I thought.

Of course I brought it to the motss.con in Ithaca (if a motss.con isn't an appropriate and/or festive occasion, I don't know what is). When I went to pack it for the trip home on Monday I noticed that it was rather damp, which I attributed to my having put it on more or less immediately after emerging from Cayuga Lake late Sunday afternoon.

Once home, I unpacked it and hung it up in its usual place -- it was still damp, having been in my suitcase all day -- and then I didn't have occasion to wear it for a few days. But I intended to wear it for our party the following weekend -- but, lo and behold, it was still wet.

I had other things to deal with, so I just put it back and wore something else. On Monday ir was still wet, so I put it out in the sun for a few hours. When I retrieved it it was nice and warm and dry (too warm to wear, actually), so I hung it back up in its usual place.

The next day it was damp again. This was getting seriously weird.

I've now tried putting it in the dryer several times, getting it good and dry. But then I leave it sitting around, and in a few hours it's all damp again. I tried checking it every 10 minutes or so to see which part of it got wet first, but I really couldn't tell. jwg thinks maybe there's some sort of reservoir of moisture in the visor. I wonder if somehow something has happened to the fabric so that it soaks up whatever moisture is in the air. Neither of these explanations really makes sense to me.

I just don't get it.

Comments

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Well, jwg, who is so much better at this sort of thing than I am, had an idea: Run the thing through the dryer, and then seal it up in a ziploc bag. "If it comes out wet, we've discovered a humidifer; if it comes out dry, but then gets wet later, we've discovered a dehumidifier."

Well, we checked it after two hours in the bag, amd it was dry. We decided to give it more time -- maybe overnight.

Stay tuned.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Left in the bag overnight; it was still dry in the morning. Took it out, left it on the dinig-room table. Came home from the Sox game this evening (just before 11:00).

The hat is damp.

I expect jwg to start writing up the patent application for a new type of dehumidifier any day now.