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Sometimes you have good days, sometimes you have bad days, and sometimes you have both at once. Yesterday when I went for my morning constitutional, I had a few extra minutes, so I decided to wear shoes that were a little bit more ambitious than what I normally wear. The shoes in question are my Nine West Plantera loafer pumps, which I have had a love/hate relationship with for over 10 years. They are one of the very few shoes that I actually bought brand new and paid full price for. Of course the reason why I had to have them in the first place is because they've got these giant 5 1/2" heels, coupled with modest 1" platforms, which gives you a visual of super tall heels, and yet is still somewhat challenging to deal with on a day-to-day basis with a 4 1/2" difference between toe and heel. Furthermore, the heels, while slim, are quite a bit thicker than stilettos, which means the heel caps last a lot longer between replacements. I don't often wear 4 1/2" heels for actual walking, but I decided to challenge myself on this particular morning. Wearing such steep heels usually means that my walking speed is pretty slow. If I make a mile in less than 23:00, I'm doing pretty well. The first mile out, I came in right under 23:00, so yeah, that was about right. I thought to myself at the time that my goal would be to eventually get that time under 22:00. A mile in, I'd evidently found my rhythm because things began to feel more natural and graceful. About that time, I caught a glimpse of my shadow on a storefront window, and I thought you know, I don't really look all that bad, at least not from the side. My second mile came in at 21:30. Whoa! And it was easy! I didn't know I had it in me. I was thinking that I really ought to wear these shoes more often (I've put only 35 miles on them in about 12 years) and step up my game. With home being only a couple blocks away, I began to feel something slightly odd. Maybe I'm overly sensitive to my surroundings, but I've felt this oddness before. Perhaps it was just my imagination. I thought a shank was giving up on me. Upon arrival home, I removed my shoes and wiggled both heels. The right was solid. The left was solid, but wait. . . there was just a little bit of extra movement there. Hmmmmm. And that's when I saw it. Not a shank failure, but the entire heel was working toward snapping in half. It's not there yet, it's still pretty solid, but it is clearly failing. Damn! I might try to glue it since it's not nearly all the way through, but that is very disappointing. And one cannot find this model out there in the wild. I imagine they were not popular enough for them to be floating around in the used market. So that's how I went from being very enthusiastic to being very disappointed within the span of an hour. The workday wasn't all that bad, though.

Just purchased these for an insanely low price, £1.75 brand new. Was such an amazing bargain, would have been crazy not to. Theyre the Stessy from Aldo. Im just not sure what to wear with them 🤔 🤣

What are people's thoughts on "having a way out" for those who wear high heels? For my wife who LOVES her high heels and wears them a lot but not every day; they can get painful at times so we always have a less painful option for her if it becomes too painful. Like having a pair of Keds (primisols) in the car that she can put on, or a pair of ballet flats. It depends on what she is wearing of course so she looks stylish even in shoes without high heels, but we have a way that she can quickly change from painful to painless. Or do you feel working through the pain is best to toughen up and get more accustomed to high heel wearing? I know sometimes for me, I am a little disappointed because she can be quick to change, especially if it is the main event we are going to, but she wants to switch out to flats when I think she would look more refined in heels. But it is not my feet in them, and I am not the high heel police.

That's a pretty bad potential failure (and write-off) for a decent pair of shoes from a well-established source. Is there a reinforcing rod inside the heel? If so, it is not doing much of a job. I can only suggest that, if the heel material is solid enough, you introduce some superglue (or maybe a good epoxy, especially if there are any voids) and clamp until truly set. Nothing to lose really, and I hope it works.

Having worn my skinny jeans with my JS knee yesterday and skyscraper jeans with mules today, yes, we should have the same freedom; and I'm taking it.

I will take a pair of running shoes on days that I wear a new pair. I start by buying heels that don't hurt to wear them. Then I will wear heels for 16 or 18+ hours without a backup plan. But you got to start with heels that don't fit correctly.

There’s a men’s fashion Instagram account that keeps popping up in my feed and it’s rather interesting. Yesterday they had a post about men’s fashions becoming more feminine - specifically mentioning skinny jeans. The chap whose account it’s, and who deals in bespoke suits, was very much against this. I posted a comment saying that I thought it was time to lighten up, allow men the same degree of freedom, fun and theatricality women took for granted. I was pleasantly surprised to have 75 (and counting) likes and only one (polite) disagreement

I've had this happen before, but it seems to be more extreme this year. Either that, or I'm walking longer distances that I used to. I have instituted a new policy when it comes to wearing shoes which have been unworn for a while. Of course, I have a checkoff list for this, which bears the heading "Vetting." I do a test walk of a mile or less, just to see where the hot spots are, if any. Sometimes, this problem goes away by itself, and sometimes there are shoes which always require some sort of barrier, such as a Bandaid, to wear for any length of time. I've got a list for that, too. Fat lot of good it's done me in the past couple of weeks! I have the same problem with sensitivity on my right big toe, at the base of my toenail. This has been an issue for decades. I can certainly remember having this problem in my 20s, and that of course was with flats. But only certain shoes do it, and some worse than others. Our bodies are at once amazing and frustrating! In other news, I went to a college senior voice recital a couple of nights ago. A young man who sings bass in our church choir will be graduating soon, and we will miss him, both for his personality and his musical talents. He had a pretty good crowd of perhaps approaching 100 people, including about a dozen of us from the church choir. I was the only one in the whole hall wearing heels, and I had walked from my house to the venue. Alas, I had an unfortunate event with my shoes. After everything was over, I started to walk home. I didn't get 20 steps out the door, and the sole of my shoe came unglued to the extent that it was impossible to walk safely. I had to walk home barefoot. Luckily, it was only 4/10ths of a mile, and the shoe is easily repairable. Also, by that time it was dark. I don't think anybody saw me clearly.