Warm hats and mistletoe

I don't know. I'm really liking this winter business. It seems correct, finally, for the season. Even if I did lose yet another hat on Friday. In the airport. I didn't want to look weird, or be asked to remove my black cap by security, so I took it off before going through the scanners on our way home from So Cal.  I am a cold wimp but you know it's winter if you have to wear a hat in Los Angeles. In any event, I wasn't the only one wearing a hat. But I was that person who lost another topper between security and 17A on the Southwest flight headed for Oakland.
Behind me is a long trail of lost hats: the cool wool hat from The Hat Shop with the felt flower; the Stetson; the the knit cap with the pink flower affixed to its side; the other knit cap with the knitted-in flower, as well as the orange striped Patagonia hat, the brown felt hat bought in Austin, and now the little black cap from REI, was missing.
I checked my seat. I checked my bag. I checked the guitar cases. It was gone.
It wasn't worth going back through security again for it. This last cap wasn't very expensive for that reason. My hat buying habits have gone the way of my sunglasses purchases, bought for price point and function more than style or brand (don't even bother trying to read my labels) because chances are I'll lose it. Perhaps this line of thinking is setting me up for lost, but whatever,  I'm beginning to think that hats and sunglasses just fly from my head.
I did notice how much I relied on a hat for warmth as we walked around Jack London Square the next day. It was of course colder here than in LA and as we walked, I felt a great bunch of heat was just leaving me. Fortunately, Encuentro, my favorite vegetarian restaurant in the East Bay, has started serving lunch as well as dinner, at their new location. On the opposite end of 2nd St. in Oakland to where they used to be, the new space is as warm as the first, and their soups and salads and sandwiches just as yummy.
Lunch was so good of course we had to follow it with good coffee. We could of had it at the restaurant, but the lunch necessitated a walk. So we ambled down 2nd across Broadway, to Bicycle Coffee, for one of their honest cups of joe. Bicycle Coffee is pretty minimalist: you can get a drip coffee or a cold brew coffee or a bag of beans to brew your own at home at their Oakland HQ. No fussy espresso drinks here. If you're a wholesale client, they'll deliver your coffee by bike. No nonsense folks, it seems, who also very much understand the need for a good hat. There amid the T-shirts, the beans and brewing gear, was a stack of beanies! Yes! Not pricey. Useful. Plus the purchase came with a free cup of coffee. More importantly,  my head was warm again. We continued our walk down to the waterfront to look at the Christmas Tree, which shimmered against a backdrop of palm trees and water. Though I can't confirm it, let's just say there was mistletoe. For a moment all was right with the world.