mlroseplant

I didn't think we were supposed to use the "U" word on here. Or maybe that's just my own rule for myself. Heck, if I wrote everything I thought, things could indeed get ugly in a hurry!

Jeez, Cali. You keep reminding me about my ex-wife. The first time I ever visited Orange County, it was one of those 5 days, and I can still remember the bitching to this day. It seemed like kind of a nice sunny day to me! I just didn't know any better. My ex-wife used to say that in historic southern California, they didn't have to worry about spending so much time and energy trying to keep warm or cool in order to keep from dying, which freed up a lot of intellectual capital. Which Californians used to develop valuable and innovative things. . . like the perfect fake fingernail. Never said my ex-wife didn't have a great and wacky sense of humor. I'm just glad I don't have to live with her anymore.

I have been forced to chop down my nails again. I am planning on making an organ video, hopefully today, and the nails were interfering with my ability to play that instrument. I have sometimes pondered that if I were a woman, and it were socially acceptable for me to have long nails, would I?

There is also an area in extreme western Iowa where you might run across some "California style" irrigation rigs. Certainly once you cross the border into Nebraska, you will see them regularly. It still doesn't change my opinion that putting leather soles on platform shoes is dumb. I guess I should post a picture of these things, I don't think I have yet.

Yes, I know what you mean. I've also been wearing largely the same pair of shoes for the last several weeks. I try to change it up every once in a while, but I always end up coming back. Part of a consequence of really having no place to go. I have actually been wearing my new Diane von Furstenberg wedge mules to go to the grocery store, and other such incidental errands, but they are kind of a pain to get on and off. It certainly is not a "no hands" operation. My BCBGirls Bonny mules are at once very comfortable to walk in, and yet very easy to slip on and off without hands, so that's what I've been wearing 90% of the time. How boring! The biggest problem with the DVF wedges is that they've got a leather sole. Why would you ever put a thin leather sole on the bottom of a platform wedge? Which means, I can't wear them if it's been raining at all, or they'll be ruined in a New York minute. And speaking of rain, that reminds me of a story you might appreciate, being from California. My ex-wife is from southern California, Orange County to be more specific. When she moved to Iowa some 25 years ago, we were driving around out in the countryside, and she innocently wondered out loud, "Where are all the irrigation rigs out in the farm fields?" To which I replied, "Oh, the irrigation rigs are built-in. We have developed a very effective irrigation system here. . . It's called rain."

Hope you continue to heal (and heel) well, @Jkrenzer. I have noticed that doggoned poison oak popping back up in my garden again! I think I will get my non-allergic friend to come help me out this time, rather than risking it myself. My poor wife didn't get into it nearly as bad as I did, but the few blotches she did get took about a year to finally fade all the way. In other news, I have gotten a new mask! Check it out:

If you go to something just a little thicker, like the boots pictured, which have a 16 mm thick heel instead of 8 or 9 mm, you'll easily get 6-8x the wear out of them. I'm talking hard rubber replacements, who knows what you get from the factory? Sometimes they're great, sometimes they're awful.

Well, it is a commercial, after all. I suppose we have slightly different interests than the audience this was intended to target.

I have found that in our area, people are either way nicer than normal, or way nastier than normal. There seems to be no in between. I'm glad that Paris seems to have gotten the way nicer end of the spectrum!

I ran across this short video the other day. I see it is quite a number of years old, but it escaped my notice until now. I've seen plenty of people over the years tap dancing in "high" heels, but this is the first time I've ever seen anybody tap dance in truly full height heels.

The GPS based equipment that we use on construction sites these days is supposedly accurate to 1/8". I would believe that, when used correctly. We are able to do a lot of stuff that we couldn't before, like install underground conduit and stub it out of the ground before there's anything else there for reference. Yes, it's possible to screw it up, but usually they're pretty spot on, amazingly enough. However, these units cost thousands and thousands of dollars, and are not really suitable for carrying in your pocket.

Ooh. That's bad. I got into poison oak a couple of years ago clearing out what is now a rose garden for my wife. The problem was, I didn't even realize it was there, so I was pulverizing it with a weed whacker before digging it up. I now know VERY WELL what it looks like. It got so bad that I had to take a day off work and go to the doctor to get steroids, because I could no longer make a fist with my left hand. Fast forward two years later, and some of it grew back, so I very carefully snipped the few bits of it off, and set them to the side for a long time before I dispose of it. Somehow, I still got a rash on both my forearms, and no place else. It was pretty mild, though. Still, I don't understand it. I was wearing a long sleeved shirt, which I immediately took off and washed when I was done. Same with all the clothes I was wearing. One of the mysteries of life. I hope you heal soon. That is no fun at all.

I agree with you @Pierre1961, walking 5,000 steps outside in the real world all at once is more difficult than walking 15,000 steps intermittently all day long, until you get used to it. On the other hand, depending on how high the heel, I'd rather walk a long distance than stand in one spot for an extended period of time. Also, I suppose I could easily rack up several hundred steps walking between my stove and kitchen sink when I am cooking, but should this really count the same as several hundred steps taken on a purposeful walk outside? @HappyinHeels, the iphone idea sounds intriguing, but I can see one problem with it. I am not really sure how accurate the pedometer on it is. I say this because I must carry two phones now at work. One personal and one company. I know, sounds ridiculous. It IS ridiculous. But at any rate, both of them are iphones with the same "health" application, and they never agree with each other about how many steps I actually took on any given day, varying by 10% or more. People who actually care about such things tell me that the fitbit or some other such purpose-built device is the way to go if you are truly concerned about accuracy. I agree that the terms and purpose of this experiment are a little vague, and perhaps even contradictory, but who cares? Let's just wait for the data and reports and see what happens!

I find it very interesting that the most reaction to my thread seems to happen when the subject wanders. This is not the first time it has happened. Of course, I suppose this thread is reflective of me in real life. I tend to meander away from the subject on a regular basis.

And to think, I managed to cut down an entire tree yesterday, and nobody got hurt! It wasn't a terribly big tree, the trunk was about 8" in diameter, but still. I did get thumped pretty good on the shin by a log, but amazingly, it didn't leave a mark. I guess it's those little twigs that you have to watch out for.