mlroseplant

Sorry to hear about your news. But at least the band is back together!

I figure that either we're freaks, or everybody else is just substandard. 😆 I can't really tell you why it doesn't hurt anymore. In fact, I prefer the high heeled position of the foot for most things. I wouldn't want to be stuck in that position permanently or anything, but I do like the way it feels. I suppose it is something that is developed through repetition over time, and I suppose that like any other athletic endeavor, there are some people who are just not very good at it, or have a physical impediment. That would explain why some people claim that even 6 cm is too high for more than a few minutes.

I'm trying to think if I've ever seen somebody around here wearing leather pants who wasn't riding a motorcycle. Skirts, yes, but I can't recall having seen somebody in pants outside of PPE. I'll be on the lookout. Speaking of looking out, I was at the grocery store yesterday (in heels, of course), and I spied a woman at some distance walking away from me. Soon I noticed heels sticking out of the hem of her pants. She had long hair, and was wearing a camel colored wool coat. At that moment, one of the clerks stepped out of the checkstand area and said, "I can help you over here, sir." I couldn't really say to hold on for a minute, I need to check out this woman's shoes first, could I? So I will never have any context for the heels. Ten years ago, I wouldn't have cared, but now I kind of want to know why someone besides me would wear heels to the grocery store.

That's what everybody says, and I suppose as a musculo-skeletal kind of guy, he felt obligated to bring it up in an admittedly awkward way. I speculate that much like I've done to my wife, I've just worn him down over the years, and he doesn't want to waste his breath. I can see where it is super easy to get sucked into that kind of thinking. After all, when used as intended, they hurt, right? I have never met a single person, including myself, who didn't experience some kind of pain during a heeling experience at some point. It's just that my defining pain experience happened nearly 13 years ago, and I would like to think I learned from it. Hey, weightlifting hurts, and I'm supposed to be doing that as I get older to minimize muscle loss.

In my county town, which we call a county seat here in the U.S., it seems like there are more heels in the winter than in the summer, which seems bass ackward to me. As noted above, it's all the block heeled boots that account for a lot of it. I never see Gen Z wearing heels of any note casually, but as least in our local, quite a few will wear them for dressy occasions.

It's happened before when I've worn some pretty tame heels to appointments: "Ya know that those kinds of shoes are really bad for you, right?" We have never had a real conversation about it, so I decided to pull out all the stops and wear pointy stiletto pumps to my appointment, as the opportunity presented itself. Not a word, and he even has to pull on my ankles as part of the normal adjustment. I wonder if he has any other patients who wear any sort of substantial heels?

I went to the chiropractor earlier this week wearing 4 1/2" stiletto heels, and he didn't say anything. I was kind of prepared for a discussion, but none ensued. It's not happened a lot, because I usually stop in on my way home from work, so it's a non-issue, but on several occasions when I've been in "civilian" clothing, I've changed my shoes to go up there because I didn't feel like talking about it. Maybe that has become unnecessary.

I always said I would never ride a bike in heels, simply because it was a bridge too far--you have to go to Asia to see that, or possibly Europe. Now, everything is a bridge too far, as I'm pretty much the only one who wears heels casually and regularly anymore, so I think I probably would now if given the chance. Unfortunately, my good bicycle was stolen a few years back (from in front of our church, if you can believe that), and my other two bicycles are currently quite inaccessible due to our overly full garage. Nowadays, it's which motorized two wheeled vehicle will I ride in heels?

As you all know, I am not opposed to sending in pictures, but I am certainly not interested in any kind of "contest." It seems likely to me that the lady who came up with the idea years ago was kind of mocking us anyway, and she is no longer active. I like to think of it as more of a fashion show, rather than a beauty pageant. To be fair, my contributions are probably more like a JCPenney catalog than they are a fashion show.

I had never really considered buying investment houses and actually living in them. That would certainly be a good way for us to get rid of a lot of junk (all three of us tend toward being hoarders). But that's not how I roll. I'm going to die in this house. I like it here. Speaking of free lunches, I'm scheduled to get one tomorrow at work. With any luck, I'll get laid off the next day. With less luck, I won't get laid off the next day. Either way is fine.

And now. . . for something completely different! Yesterday it snowed. Again. It's going to be one of those winters, apparently. It's not even Christmas, and I'm already wearing of removing snow. A couple of years ago, I got these vintage boots. Cobbies is the brand name. I got them because they are shearling lined, and I wanted some "heels" to wear when it was really cold. These boots feature 2 3/8" heels, which is right at about 6 cm. In other words, FLAT. Which suits me fine for the work I'm doing. I do consider them low heels in the grand scheme of thing, but they're flats. Let's be realistic. Where things get interesting is the coefficient of friction factor. The forefeet of these boots are quite grippy, while the heels, once covered in ice, are dangerously slippery. This leads to some interesting footwork, worthy of a ballerina or Latin dancer. Walking heel to toe on smooth concrete after walking in the snow can lead to catastrophe, so it's best to do the opposite--toe first. I demonstrated this to my 16 year old. He said do what you got to do. A reheeling with Vibram would probably solve this issue.

I have always worn shorts in the summer, as did my father before me. However, neither of my two sons ever wore shorts after the age of about 10, and they don't show any sign of ever changing. Oddly enough, both of them have legs that are like tree trunks, and yet they have different mothers. They certainly didn't get that from me! I also know plenty of women who never wear shorts or an above the knee skirt. I don't want to say I never do it, but it is easier to wear my beloved wooden heeled sandals with shorts rather than stilettos. Probably absolutely no one outside a certain group thinks about it this way, but to me chunky wooden heeled sandals with shorts is far less radical looking than stilettos with shorts. There is probably almost no one in the general populace who makes such a distinction. @higherheels I always thought the only proper footwear with a Dirndlkleid is none at all, meiner Meinung nach. Certainly much better than sneakers.

I do not know how we got here, but since we are here, that math really isn't mathing. Even assuming that you could actually deduct everything you put into your house, it's not like it's free money. It just means you don't have to pay income taxes on that money. I know people do it, but every time I've looked into buying a house to flip, the numbers just weren't there. It's one of those deals where if I actually lived there, yeah, it would be worth it, but as a means of making money on the side, it's a lot of work for very little gain. Plus, I don't have that kind of energy anymore. Having said that, I wish I could have predicted the insane increase in the price of houses in the last few years. I probably could have made some money off of that.

@higherheels Congratulations on another accomplishment, even if it seemed a bit anticlimactic. I am curious to know whether it's just the fatigue that limits your walking distance, or are there other factors? I am pretty much resigned to waiting until Spring for me to make much progress. We just got more snow, and we're supposed to get more on Saturday--like 15 cm more. It is somewhat unusual for us to have this much snow before the middle of December. I have a feeling it's going to be a long winter! As for the rest of the discussion, I could not possibly imagine ever wearing stilettos when I first started heeling. Too girly. I had one color for shoes: Black. And they had to be very plain. I actually used to color in shiny hardware with a black marker to make them less flashy, and then I'd wear boot cut pants hemmed as close to the floor as was practical. I suppose I must have looked very strange, trying to hide my heels like that. It took a couple of years before I warmed to the idea of wearing stilettos myself, even though that was always the gold standard for heels. Today, I basically wear stilettos (though not exclusively) for dressier occasions. My wife has long given up objecting to any of my footwear, and unfortunately is long past being able to wear any of it herself, due to severe knee issues. I still feel funny wearing stilettos in more casual situations, especially with shorts. I cannot tell you why. I need to get over it.

The last time I actually measured my feet on a Brannock device, I was a U.S. Women's size 9, and about a B 1/2 width (halfway between B and C). So most standard women's shoes fit me nicely, if slightly snugly. My work boots are technically women's (though there is no stylistic difference). For years, I thought I was 9 1/2, but that is always too big. Here's what I don't understand about pumps--how is it that some women are able to just step into them and walk normally? Getting mine on is a bit of a production, and I certainly can't flex my toes and pop my heel right out of the shoe, even wearing hosiery. If I could, they would pop right out of the shoe while I am walking, which was the whole problem in the first place.