mlroseplant

It has been a long while since I've shared any outfits, and today is barely an exception. One of my friends sent me a screenshot of the church livestream, and I thought, "At least my posture is fairly decent." The photo is of course, super low-res, but then again, the livestream sound, to my ear, is super low-fi to match the picture.

From my perspective, you did it right. Get that stuff out of the way when it doesn't count for much. You see, I was a good kid. Not perfect, but never caused any trouble. As a result, I didn't start doing stupid stuff until I was in my 40s. Not a great way to do things.

I took the day off so I could take care of some things. While I was in the grocery store, I saw an older lady (by older, I mean at least as old as me) wearing OTK snakeskin boots with 3 1/2" block heels and a demin miniskirt. I have no idea who she is, but I have this feeling I've seen her before. I was in no mood for unnecessary interaction on that occasion, so I passed up the opportunity to learn more, despite the fact that I was wearing heels myself.

It's funny how everybody's experience is a little different. I have never had any trouble with teenaged girls, at least in this decade. It's the boys who tend to make rude comments, often behind my back, evidently. The girls all coo over my shoes.

I had my first eye lasered yesterday. The procedure is called Direct SLT (Selective Laser Trabeculoplasty), and it is designed to reduce eye pressure while being minimally invasive. I was told that it would take about 15 minutes. That was not really an accurate description of how it went. The actual lasering took somewhere in the neighborhood of two seconds (you mean that's IT?), and then I had to wait around for 15 minutes after that, so they could make sure that I was not one of the few whose eye pressure spiked right after, or had some other adverse reaction. For once, I was in the majority, and got sent on my way 15 minutes later with a slight dull headache. I do have something relevant to say about the experience, that is, high heel related. Two weeks ago when I went for the consultation/testing portion of this experience, one of the techs I had went on and on about my shoes. I didn't have her yesterday, but she went out of her way to flag me down in the hallway (she recognized me from two weeks ago) just to see what I was wearing that day. I happened to be wearing burgandy Mary Janes, which I wore because one of the few non-wrinkled shirts I have left is that matching color. I am really behind on the ironing.

Does this mean we are officially in a recession?

Well folks, it has been an exhausting month, but a good one. I haven't had a whole lot to say, and it seems that neither has anyone else. I haven't even bought any shoes in over two months! On the other hand, I have been walking a lot. I hope all are well.

Since the weather has gotten warmer, I have been wearing sandals sometimes. I have two pairs of the same model of True Religion peep toe mules. For whatever reason, there is a slight variation in heel height among the three pairs. The black pair is right at an effective 4" (5"/1" plat), but the brown pair is 4 1/8". It's not a night and day comparison, but they do walk differently, and I do notice it. While quite comfortable, neither pair feels like flats.

I have nothing earthshaking to report, but an acquaintance of mine, a younger woman who must be about 35 by now, wore 3 1/2" wedge sandals to Easter service at the church. She has done so for the better part of 20 years (since high school). Never to be seen in ridiculously high heels, but always something in that 3 1/2" range.

Because I have so many used shoes from so many varied sources, when I say "4 inch heel," I mean actual, not nominal on a size 9 USW/40 EU. Besides that, you can't really trust every seller to measure accurately or even use the same method to measure. The Gold Standard for many people is 120 mm, and though I have several pairs of shoes that approach that height, I would assume that I would need 125-127 mm to equal the steepness of a "nominal" 120 mm. Judging only by sight, my Steve Madden pumps, though styled very similarly, are not quite as steep as actual Christian Louboutin So Kates. The Maddens measure in right at 118 mm, but of course on Size 9. At either 118 or 125, uh, yeah, I can feel that!

I had an experience on Easter Sunday. I wish I could say it was the first time, but at least it's only the second time this has happened to me in exactly this way. When I left the house and climbed into my son's Big Oldsmobile, I had both heel tips. By the the time I arrived at the church door, I had neither. It seems they fell off almost simultaneously. Luckily, the sanctuary floor is carpeted, or I might have been in real trouble.

There is something to be said about not ever forgetting to put your safety glasses on at the jobsite, because you CAN'T really forget.

`Given 24 hours to think about it, I've had several experiences with grumpy old men which were similar to Gige's experience. I swear I am not making this up--they have all said something to the effect of, "Golly gee, those shoes must be awfully comfortable!" The funny thing about these encounters is that you're going about your business, thinking about something else, just living life. To be suddenly yanked out of your own world and your own thoughts, and be expected to come up with a zinger on the spot, that's a difficult situation, and I'm not usually up to the task. I can remember replying to such people, "Believe it or don't, they're really not all that bad." Which, although 100% true, is not a great comeback to a remark that is obviously meant to be insulting, but whatever. At least I don't freeze up like I used to at the beginning of my high heeled journey.

I always say it depends upon your definition of "walk." I have a fairly narrow definition, and sometimes I cannot live up to my own definition, even in 3" heels.

It is hard to know what to do in such a situation. It depends on how hard core hateful the guy is. Some people can be reached, and some cannot. The question is, is it worth it?

Maybe you did get the "wrong" lenses. I personally know four people who have gotten cataract surgery, and all of them have raved about how much better they can see afterwards. Jean in particular, looks weird without her glasses.

I also have noticed this phenomenon. For me personally, the height at which heels begin to feel like heels is somewhere around 3 1/2". At 4 - 4 1/4", they definitely feel like heels, but they seem very natural. By 4 1/2", I'm really at my limit, and on some days beyond it. I do not take wearing 4 1/2" heels lightly, especially if I'm going to be on camera. But yeah, I get it. We have trained ourselves to the point where the unnatural feels natural. To be sure, there are some times when you had better notice that you're wearing heels, so's you don't do something silly like step onto some grating as if you were wearing flats.

You are doing awfully well to get this far without needing reading glasses. In fact, I'm going to guess that you are the 1%. My mother-in-law was also the 1%. She died at the age of 80 without ever needing glasses. My wife has made it to 56 without glasses. I made it to age 10, and I got bifocals before I turned 40. However, if I lost my glasses (unlikely), I could survive just fine for some time without them, unlike other members of my family. Up until a few months ago, I had always thought that glaucoma = high eye pressure. I have come to find out that this is not the case. Glaucoma is a disease which gradually deteriorates one's vision by causing damage to the optic nerve. One of the several factors that makes one at higher risk for this disease is high eye pressure. Evidently, having thin corneas or being Asian are other risk factors. Despite working longer hours, I have managed to keep up my walking schedule. I have lost weight, which is something I have to be careful about, because I don't have a lot of weight to lose. Between my high heels walks and the size of the building(s) I'm working in, I'm averaging about 18,000 steps a day over the last four weeks.

Well folks, it's official. I'm going under the knife in two weeks. Actually, there will be no knives involved, just a laser. I went to an ophthalmologist yesterday to get my high eyeball pressure problem assessed. Evidently, they now have a way to treat this condition that is putatively permanent, without having to resort to daily eyedrops or periodic injections. Apparently, I am a good candidate for this procedure, and it's pretty quick--about 15 minutes per eyeball. Thankfully, I have not yet developed glaucoma, i.e., there is no functional damage to the inner workings of my eyes. I got two overt compliments on my Steve Madden blush colored pumps, one from one of the techs who administered the battery of tests I had to run through, and one from a fellow patient.

That hue range has become my favorite as of late. It seems that no two pairs are exactly the same, even though they are all encompassed in the same color family. The texture of the closed toed pumps sounds interesting.

Having a backup pair of shoes is probably not a bad idea. I did this for years, and what I discovered is that I went to the backup shoes exactly once, and that was when a sole completely detached from one of my main pair of shoes. The backups, however, were never flats but rather lowish mid heels that I know will never bite me back. My test used to be could I work a farmer's market in a give pair of shoes, a venue in which I was required to stand pretty much continuously for five hours, and that's pretty much the maximum that I'm in heels at one shot these days. If I'm in any sort of pain, it will almost always be because of pinched toes, not because of the high heel position. That pretty much only happens with pumps, which I have to wear pretty tight, or I'll walk right out of them. I always wondered how women can slip their shoes off easily and yet still walk normally. That doesn't happen for me. The real secret to my success is how much I walk in heels. Almost every morning, I'm out there pounding the pavement in heels. I feel it really makes a difference. Standing in one spot is much harder than walking in heels (and I would argue in any sort of shoe), but walking gains you a lot of endurance as well as a sense of fluidity and grace if you give it long enough, and do it purposefully enough. Besides that, it's fun! To actually address the original question, I do not believe it's possible to "work through the pain" and gain much endurance doing incidental activities. Therefore, I don't hold it against anybody if they want to bring a pair of backup shoes just in case.

I assume you're talking about something like turpentine or naphtha, and not say, gin.

I had never really thought about the significance of an ankle bracelet. I know that they are very popular among the younger generation of Vietnamese, and I believe my wife was an early adopter, as I am not personally aware of anybody else of her generation who wears one. We've never really talked about it, but I think she wears hers for some rather ill-defined superstitious reason. It certainly isn't worn for any kind of sex appeal. To address the other subject, I have been on the prowl for some new jeans for everyday use. It's difficult to find ordinary straight cut jeans anymore, at least in women's styles and sizes. I rather like skinny jeans, but I'm also getting to be a grumpy old guy, and I don't want to struggle to get my pants on and off every day. I'll save that for special occasions. At the other end of the spectrum, there are flared boot cuts. I have a couple of pairs leftover from the last time they were in style, and I dug them out this year. I don't think they look too bad on me, but again, the use has to be purposeful. Boot cuts only look good with um, boots. Or at least heels of some sort. Otherwise, they look sloppy to my eye. Plus, you can't come home and take off your heels when you walk in the door, because now your pants are dragging the floor. First World problems, I guess.

Although planned obsolescence is a known and perhaps prevalent business strategy, I do not believe it applies in the instant case, strictly speaking. By its very nature, the entire fashion industry is constantly changing, so that my shoe failure was just an ancillary incident, having nothing to do with Nine West's business model. Let's face it--the shoes were already several seasons out of style when they broke. Furthermore, I would also be willing to bet that my particular failure is very uncommon, as very few people put high heels through the stresses that I do. Even further-than-that-more, it would be impossible for Nine West to predict when failure was going to occur, or indeed if it was going to occur at all, and therefore my shoes breaking is not really an effective way for them to maintain or increase future profits. I'm going to go out on a limb here, because I am relying only on my memory, but I'm going to say that I've never actually broken a pair of shoes that I use only for incidental wear. By incidental wear, I'm thinking of all the @Jkrenzer approved stiletto pumps that I wear only for dressy occasions, and don't actually pound the pavement in. They get worn to church, maybe to the grocery store, or maybe out to dinner on the few occasions that we eat out. I have had a high shoe failure rate with my walking shoes, but to be fair, the designers of such shoes never imagine that they'd be used in that manner. Somehow I doubt Steve Madden did any kind of durability/wear testing before releasing this spring's line.

There is a rod, but for whatever reason, it doesn't go quite go the full length of the heel. I have had this exact failure once before, cf. p. 80 of this thread. Those shoes were also Nine West, different model, but of the same vintage. Oddly enough, I bought both of them brand new and owned them for more than a decade before failure. I can't actually see it on these Planteras, but I guarantee you that the heel is beginning to break right where that metal rod ends. Why they didn't make it a little longer to go the full length is beyond me, but I only know that it is so. If I decide to attempt some kind of repair, I think I'm going to go with the superglue, simply because it takes quite a bit of force to get that crack to open up enough to get something in there, so I'm hoping the crack is less than halfway through the thickness of the heel. I don't want to break it more trying to get something more viscous than superglue in there. I have no scientific evidence to back this hypothesis up, but it is my guess that the failure has less to do with the inadequate stiffening of the heel, and more to do with the aging of plastic. Unless something goes terribly wrong, I think I have at least another decade or more of wearing heels left in me, so I shall be interested to see just how well some of these plastics hold up longer term, and what causes them to fail.