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Church OOTW for 01/18/26. I chose red, mainly because I wanted to wear my fire engine red pumps. I suppose it would be interesting to choose black and pair it with red shoes, but I didn't think of it in time. I'm typically ironing my shirt 30 minutes before I have to show up. I got a number of comments on my outfit, but none specifically about my shoes. Like I said in the "Aiming High" thread, what once was the outer limit of my skill now seems almost easy to negotiate.

I have a problem that I didn't have before. On the weeks that I actually get a photo taken of my church outfit, I am wont to post it on my usual thread "Ruminations, etc." Now that we've got this higher heel challenge going, sometimes these subjects overlap. After warming up in my training shoes in the snow, I wore these effectively 11.3 cm pumps to church. I'll post the whole outfit (or at least what you can see with my winter coat) on my other thread. Like we keep saying, take a cm or two off the height of our "training" heels, and it's actually pretty easy! Nobody but you folks believes me, though. Brand of these shoes is GenShuo, and I really cannot complain about the quality, for what they are. They seems every bit as sturdy as my usual Steve Maddens, and they offer just a smidge more height. They obviously are not expensive shoes, but they aren't ridiculously cheap, either.

Algorithms can either be good or bad, but for some reason on youtube I must have touched off one in the wrong way because I am constantly being bombarded by a trend I see starting. Or at least it seems that way. Men in pantyhose, or tights for those in other countries. Talk about changing up a mans typical drab wardrobe. I have no real opinion on the topic. When I first started transmission line work, I was in Montana in the winter of 1998 and it was cold. My foreman’s first words were, “buy pantyhose and wear them as it will keep you warm”. Like me, he was married and a mans-man in every way but openly wore pantyhose when it was cold out. I tried wearing them, and I think they do keep a person warmer, but it was too self-conscious for me. I worried about getting hurt and having to explain to medical professionals why I am wearing pantyhose under my work clothes. I do wear leggings though. They are often called “a base layer” but they are really leggings. My wife hates it, but I am not a front flap kind of guy, just downing the waistband when I need to go to the bathroom, so in order to look like I am wearing pants and not underwear with a flap, I buy the women’s style of base-layer, or leggings really. They are comfortable lounging at home, and keep me warm, although I think pantyhose did a better job of it. Without the flap, they look like black pants and so I can move in and out of the house with some neighbor wondering what I am wearing in semi-public! But it is all over youtube now, a drive to get men to wear pantyhose openly. I have no opinion on the matter except to point it out to people on here for discussion on whether its a new fashion trend they would embrace or detest. https://youtu.be/I1m0yWzI-jI?si=VJKkHfslddHSdGDG

Well, we do work inside of conduit more than you would think. Like the power coming to the island here is not run overhead, although it could be. The distance is not that far from shore to shore. Instead, it is dropped into conduit and run across the bridge that crosses the reach. But for the most part they are slung from poles or towers. The tallest towers in the world are in China at 385 meters or 1235 feet, or about the height of the Sears/Willis tower in Chicago. They need to be that high so they can span a 2 km, or 1.25-mile-wide river. But in the transmission line world, temperature is critical. Affixed solidly between two points, if the load increases, the wires heat up and thus expand… and sag… often times into tree limbs or vegetation. The newer lines have temperature sensors built into the wires along with signaling cable in the center of them so grid operators can know how much sag they are getting from high loads. That was part of the problem during the Great East Coast Blackout of 2003 which killed 100 people. As for your high heeled walk you did. First: you are a man of integrity so I think I speak for all of us when I say there was no need for a validating photo. While we appreciate seeing it by all means, it was not required because if you say you did something, I think all of us know you truly did it. But second of all… in the snow? Wow, are you brazen. Good for you! It is hard to say if you needed to do so with no one seeing you though. I think so many people are so caught up in their own worlds and problems they might not even notice a man walking in the snow in high heels. My case in point, I’ll be driving with the wife and say, “slow down for those deer”, to which she will say, “deer? Where? I don’t see any”. I say this because you would be surprised in what people do not see. Of course I say that with the full knowledge that some blooming idiots would drive into you in being so surprised to see a man walking in high heels in the snow too, paying no attention that they were actually driving!

@mlroseplant You did great! 1,6 km in these heels sure isn't for beginners, and the snow doesn't make it easier. @Shyheels A different approach to practicing in heels, sounds adventurous 😀 I reached a milestone on the weekend - I wore my 13+ cm boots out for the furthest distance so far, to a location where I also wore the Hot Chicks before. It was around 200 m one way, a bit more than my usual walk around the block. The walk there was fine, on the walk back it was a bit more uncomfortable. I feel like I can finally step back on the practice walks and wear them out more for the "real things" 🙂