mlroseplant

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.

Here is a picture of me at church, wearing 11 cm heels, playing the alto horn (or tenor horn, if you are British). On Christmas Eve, no less, in blatant violation of the rule. The other flat-heeled guy playing the trumpet is my son. It wasn't my best outfit choice ever. What's up with those pants?

You're back! Awesome! Here is another pair of wedges that I really liked, from Schutz, but unfortunately they broke on their very first true outing. I forgot about that one, actually. Elsewhere, I said I've only had 2 shoe failures this year. Make that 3.

Pumps can be tricky. I thought I couldn't wear them for the longest time, because every time I tried, I'd just walk right out of them. Literally, my heel would pop right out of the shoe within a few steps. It was very frustrating. After a few years of heeling, I found that I needed to go down half a size in general. That helped a good deal. Thankfully my narrow foot can tolerate a typical pump with a pretty tight fit. Steve Madden is the brand that fits me the best for pumps. Unfortunately, modern Steve Maddens are not leather, but I do not find them objectionable nevertheless. Then again, I do not wear them all day, every day. The other unfortunate thing about Steve Madden is that they do not make a true 120 mm model. My favorite model is called Daisie, which is a pretty good imitation of a Louboutin So Kate, only without the red sole, and with a mere 110 mm effective heel height. My second favorite model is call the Klory, which is quite a bit like the Pigalle (the old Pigalle, not the new ones). Again, the effective heel height is aroun 105-110 mm, depending on which example you get. Not quite up to our standards! Alas, I gave the wrong impression about the church security cameras. There is no footage of me practicing in heels, although that would have cause the Board of Trustees far less alarm, I'm sure. My then 15 year old son got caught in there, practicing with the jazz band combo that he and his friend led. They had tacit permission to be in there, but evidently did not have the correct and official permission to be in there. Unfortunately, I was running an errand when they were escorted out, and couldn't be present to defend them.

Yes, we are waiting with 'bated breath (not literally) to find out how a walk around the block in 13+ cm boots goes. Last night, I wore stiletto pumps for the first time since last spring, and while mine were much tamer than yours, at an effective 10.5 cm, it was the fit and feel that got me way more than the height. I'm just not used to that style. Still, there were no injuries of any sort--not even a blister. I'll get used to them again in no time, I'm sure. I have no idea how far I walked, but I got to the event a little bit late, and had to park my car "in the Back 40," as they say around here. A couple hundred meters, for sure. I used to have the perfect place to practice if I came early enough or late enough--my church, with its long hallways and long flights of stairs. However, due to the times, they've installed security cameras which activate if there's somebody mucking about in there when they shouldn't be. Ask me how I know.

2012 happens to be the year I started wearing heels, but I never wore heels to a church service until 2013. At that time, I did have a very conservative pair of very plain looking, block heeled oxfords. I believe they had 3 1/2" heels. So evidently one could find heels that low in 2012, but they were somewhat unusual, or at least unusual in my memory! The small platform definitely tracks. Everything had a platform then. I have to laugh a bit at the rule, because evidently I've violated it every Sunday for years.

I spent the entire day yesterday in high stiletto ankle boots. When adjusted for size and platform, the heel height was 10.4 cm. I am not quite telling the whole truth about that. I intended to spend the entire day in 10.4 cm stiletto boots, but fate had other plans for me. As documented elsewhere, I broke a heel about mid-afternoon and had to switch to 10 cm slim heeled boots after that. I would say that hobbling around on a broken heel for the better part of an hour was good practice for 12 cm, but I really don't think it was. It just made me grumpy, and made me look funny.

I had my second shoe failure of 2025 yesterday. However, this one was not catastrophic--in other words, it can be repaired. I was wearing my Aldo stiletto ankle boots to shop at Costco, and I noticed as soon as I stepped out of the car that something was very wrong. The heel on my right boot had indeed come loose, and was flexing wickedly in a way it wasn't meant to flex. I didn't have any alternatives with me in my wife's car, so I had to walk very strangely the whole time in order to keep from damaging the heel further. I prevailed in the end, I believe this shoe can be fully repaired, but it ruined an otherwise enjoyable outing. I'm doing pretty well this year. On an average year, I have about half a dozen shoe failures, and the vast majority of those result in the shoes being reclassified as landfill material. This year, I've only had two, and like I said, I'm sure this latest one is an easy fix. This despite the fact that I've walked significantly further in 2025 than I did in 2024.

When I say The Era of Super High Heels, I don't necessarily mean the era of super steep heels. It's true, 15 cm heels were everywhere, but always with a 5 cm platform (at least). I see a lot of shoes from this era still for sale on the likes of Poshmark or ebay. I almost want to buy a pair, just to see how they are (or were). I assume your shoes from the mid 2000s had about a 10 cm difference between forefoot and heel? I must admit to owning several pairs of platform shoes in the 3 cm range, and even some up to 4 cm, but to me the heel must be more than 10 cm higher or the proportions just look "off" to me. For sure, in the midwestern U.S., heels were everywhere in the 1980s, but my sense of what was super high when I was a teenager was definitely different than it is today. When I was at university, one of my good friends was a violinist with whom I spent quite a lot of time. She always wore these really high black suede pumps when it came concert time, and we were required to wear formal black. I don't remember exactly how this happened, but her shoes got left behind in my dorm room overnight (without her, I must add). Although she was a 38, maybe a 38 1/2, which prevented me from actually trying the shoes on, I did put a tape measure to them. A touch shy of 9 cm. That's it. And those were super high heels back then to most people, including me. Today, this girl, now a woman of course, is really my only friend from uni that I stay in touch with. I have admitted examining her shoes way back when, and we got a good laugh out of it. Here's the kicker: She says she has no idea how she ever wore those shoes at all, much less every time she had occasion to dress up in the color black (which was pretty often for us music majors). I said to her, "Hon, you realize that 9 cm is like a mid heel to me, right?" Her max height is now about 3 cm. So very true: 8 cm heels count as heels, but they are quite manageable. I am trying to remember when it became thus for me, because I can recall my first public appearance in true elevated heel footwear that required a bit of walking, and it was to an event on our town square. It was about a half mile there and another half mile back to my house. I was wearing effectively 7 cm clogs. I remember the half mile home being impossibly long due to tired calf muscles. And I was pushing my then 3 year old son (now almost 17) in his stroller, so I even had something to hang on to. Now 7 cm barely even counts as a heel!

I must admit to being kind of jaded, having an industrial background, but I was kind of thinking the same thing. On the other hand, I absolutely hate dealing with automotive electrical gremlins.

Our snow is gone, also. Well, not gone, but the pavement is pretty much dry now. However, we're supposed to get more tonight. Don't despair, my friend. If you're now able to get out in 8 cm to actually walk, that will get you a long way toward your goal.