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Sounds like an interesting meeting. No such sophistication here in the rural north of England although I did see a woman sporting knee boots with 3-inch heels in the local grocery store the other day. the first time I've seen heels in town...

In Iowa, there is nothing like the MoT inspection required. There used to be. They got rid of that when I was a kid. I remember the sticker you had to put in the corner of your windscreen every year. Then they went to requiring inspection only when you sold the car. A decade later, they got rid of it completely. I remember as a pre-teen looking through the newspaper classifieds (remember them?) at used cars. The seller would list them as "red title" if the car couldn't pass inspection. One used to be able to pick such cars up for a little bit of nothing. We have never had any kind of emissions test. I am completely ignorant of what the other 49 states do or do not require. Expanding on the general subject, and again this is for the State of Iowa, if a vehicle sustains damage that exceeds 70% of its fair market value before the damage, then it is given a Salvage title, and cannot legally be operated on public roads. If one repairs such a vehicle, at that point it must be inspected. If it passes inspection, the vehicle will be given a Rebuilt title (which, up until a few years ago, they used to call a Prior Salvage title).

At a meeting today, two 4 inch stilettos, two 4 inch block heels, one kitten stiletto, two 2 inch block heels, five tennis shoes.

Funnily enough a couple if my pair of boots have been doing something similar. One of my low-heeled boots, I wear almost daily, and one of my OTK mid-heeled boots have both started rubbing in the top of my third toe on my left foot. Weird. And for no reason I can understand.

Apologies for going back to car talk, but I'm impressed with the Oldsmobile and its swift resurrection. Is it necessary/obligatory to have an old or rebuilt car officially tested as being 'roadworthy' in Iowa (or elsewhere in the US), as with the annual UK MoT test (for anything over three years old)?

I don't have any more car stories today. Actually, I do, but I think we're all getting tired of car stories. Today, I wish to complain about my shoes. When I say complain, it's in a softer sense. It's more of a puzzlement. My poor feet have been taking a beating lately, in more ways than one. As the weather gets warmer, I am gradually breaking out the lighter shoes and sandals. They who had been my longtime friends are not necessarily so friendly at present. During a particularly warm day a couple of weeks ago, I ventured out in my Bebe wooden sandals, which are normally good for several miles/all day. I consider them mid-heels, and they are real leather. Not the nicest looking things, but they are comfortable. However, they ate holes in my feet in under two miles on their first journey of the season, severe enough that it's taken about three weeks for them to heal completely. And then last night, I wore my Steve Madden beige colored pumps for several hours, including to choir rehearsal. Although they did not do any visible damage to my feet, I could feel a lot of pressure on the outsides of my feet around the bases of my little toes (left and right equally). The pain was limited to that, but that's bad enough. It's very distracting when you're trying to have a conversation with somebody, and all you can think about is that you want to get out of those shoes. That ain't no way to live. So what gives? Why would these former friends turn on me like this? Do you suppose I'm pregnant?