I was still at home in the midst of last-minute packing for this extended post-surgery stay in California when I made an unwelcome discovery.

It was a surprise to find that my weight loss over the previous two months has rendered by belt ineffective in holding up my pants! I guess that I’ve been compensating by constantly hitching my pants up to avoid losing them.

What to do? It was too late to buy another belt. If necessary, I was sure that I could make it to SF where the search for a new belt could begin.

But at some point I opened a drawer to grab a few pairs of socks.

Surprise! There was a mold-covered length of brown leather that I recognized as a well-worn belt I had “outgrown” quite a number of years ago. Exactly what I needed, a belt that previously fit a less robust Ian.

So I slowly wiped off the mold. Then I applied two different leather cleaner/conditioners found stuck away in a couple of those “toss everything in” drawers. Let the conditioner soak in, then polished a couple of times. The leather slowly began to recover from the years of neglect up on a high shelf in our closet where the mold had found it.

And, bingo! A belt that fits. A bit worse for wear, as I am, but rescued from somewhere deep in my past and ready to resume its duties!