Belted

When The Man visited Texas years ago, he brought back some cowboy belts. Over the years, two of them are quite worn out. They would have come apart any minute at the stretch where the buckle needle slips into the eye.

The Man and I had the same thought. You glue and sew a piece of leather on the back of the belt where the broken eye is, then punch new eyes through the leather patch. Maybe we can get it done for $10 per belt.

Down the street is a leather repair shop. The owner puts a sign up that says "A guy who fixes leather." So into this shop I went with my two belts looking for a repair job. The owner looked at my belts and said,

- This one I can cut off the end, put in a new piece and try to save the belt tip. If I can't, then your belt won't have the silver tip at the end. It'll cost about $75. I charge $50 an hour. This job will take about one and a half hours.

This other one is irreparable. It's one continuous belt and I would have to replace the whole belt.

- I'm sure we didn't pay $75 for this belt.

- You would have paid between $75 and $100 for it.

- We must've bought in on sale.

- Well then, the repair will cost more than your original price of the belt.

- Can't you just patch them with a piece of leather at the back?

- That'd be shoddy work. I win awards for my repairs. I don't do that.

- I can't pay $75 for a repair.

- You shouldn't. It wouldn't be worth it.

So I left the shop. And I realized, despite how low-keyed he tried to present himself, his is a high-end repair shop. So I kept the belts in the car in case I find a shop that will fix the belts cheap. One day, The Man found a shoe repair. The shoe repair charged $12 to do what we wanted. Yesterday, The Man picked up the repaired belts. Both belts have been fixed, almost seamlessly, a much better repair than I could have imagined. For $12.

I just need something to hold up my pants. I don't want to wear award-winning repair on my waist.