mlroseplant

I have had these wedge heeled rain boots for a very long time. They are supposed to be shiny, but they were in a corner covered with dust, and I wasn't going to take the time to clean them up just for this comment. I have worn them occasionally in the past, and they don't do a horrible job of pretending to be actually utilitarian. About 2 1/4" heels. Those Hunters with the 3 1/2" block heel look pretty sharp (for a rain boot), so of course they quit making them!

Thanks for the thoughts about that. It does have some sentimental value, but not all that much. If I could somehow get the bike it replaced back, an old 3 speed planetary, Sears brand I believe, that would have a lot more sentimental value than the Gitane. After all, I got dumped out of that one at least once! Remember those old rear mounted child seats? Ha! Mom never really could get the hang of a 10 speed. I think it spent most of its early life in one gear. I'll get in touch once we dig the bike out of its currently fairly buried spot in the garage in the spring. I might not be interested in rebuilding the thing, but my son might. He knows all wot's wrong with it, and why we haven't fixed it yet. He took over practically all that stuff some 10 years ago. Now, I'm his helper, rather than the other way around.

Thank you for supplying that word. It had not been a part of my vocabulary for quite some time. I'm trying to remember everything that's wrong with that bike. For one thing, some part of the rear axle or cluster gear assembly is bent to the extent that the derailleur make noise no matter how to have it adjusted. It wobbles something fierce. It seems to me that something also went wrong in the crankcase area. I do remember we are missing several ball bearings, and I don't think I lost any during disassembly. I know one of the cotter pins is worn, so you've got a lot of slop in one of the crank arms. It's enough broken stuff that the thing will probably wind up in the scrap yard one of these days. I certain have other ways of spending my time and money. I did have fun with it for quite some time.

It really depends on exactly what type of sandal you're wearing. The ones pictured above give you quite a bit more coverage than something with really thin straps. I definitely plan on taking them for a spin within a couple of days, when temperatures are forecast to be around 50º/10º. I don't know that I'd want to go to an outdoor football game in sandals at that temperature, but certainly they're fine if you're either moving constantly or just going from the car into the grocery store.

Even on the sandal thread, it seems I'm surrounded by boot guys! Even outside of this forum, I am surrounded by boot guys. How is that? Under your collective influence and needling, I have actually bought and worn boots this winter more than any other winter in recent memory, and I don't hate it, but I am ready for sandals again. I might get the chance fairly soon. Looks like the weather is due for a substantial warmup within 3-4 days.

Pictured below is my Gitane circa 1980. Pictured riding said bicycle is my friend the shoe lady. While her footwear is not terribly high heeled, she always wears cute sandals in the summer, never Crocs, Birkenstocks, or rubber flip-flops. Although this picture is from over 10 years ago, I still have the bike. It is old school steel lugged frame, a 10 speed with stem shifters. My dad purchased this brand new for my mom back in the day, and as you can see, it's one of those hybrid frames to allow a skirt to be worn. I can't remember what that type of frame was called. I dragged this thing out 12 years ago, did a lot of work to it, put new tires on it, and thought I was going to compete in a triathlon with it. Wrong! I didn't really know much when I started (still don't), but evidently this bike was built to a price point, and built so cheaply that I literally broke it in several places, pushing it in ways it was never designed to be pushed. It is virtually unrideable now, and you can't really get parts for it, being French and all. However, if I could get parts for it, it would be pretty easy to fix, even by a know-nothing like me.

It is definitely the wrong season for these, even for me, but I'm good and ready to wear sandals again. I picked these up on ebay, and they turned out to be pretty great, or at least so I think having yet to wear them out in the real world. Below zero temperatures are a little extreme even to snap a quick picture, so you get the picture on top of the clothes dryer for now. They are Nine West, but newer Nine West, so you get a weird model name and questionable quality. The model is called Wilia3. Why 3? I have no idea. They seem pretty solid, but only time will tell. The heels are 5 1/4" coupled with 1" platforms, so they are reasonably steep. They are a little bit unusual in the sense that the heels are asymmetrical in their dimensions, being 3/4" fore-and-aft, but only 1/2" side-to-side.

It just goes to show you that everything is so specialized these days. I'm assuming that the electric shift bicycles are not for general public consumption--or maybe they are, because nobody rides a bicycle anymore for actual transportation. Not even kids. It's kind of sad, actually. Over in Vietnam, it's a different story. There are a tiny, tiny segment of the population who have "modern" bicycles, and those are the rich folks. Everybody else rides super heavy old school single speed bicycles. You don't go very fast on these things, but you could throw them off a cliff, leave them in the ocean for a year, and they'd still get you from Point A to Point B when you dug them out.

I took the cargo van up to Des Moines yesterday (which we bought for my wife's business), and was noticing that it's getting pretty rusty. Luckily, my son's best friend's dad owns and runs a local body shop. The guy also happens to be a phenomenal trumpeter! Many of us blue collar guys have hidden talents. The reason that this relates to the larger topic is because this family is of a rather conservative Christian nature, but in the end have accepted me as I am because I guess they figure I'm an all right guy after all. Actions and character evidently speak louder than shoes.

It is still better than mud. 😀

In defense of Shyheels's assertion, it is generally a lot cheaper here in the U.S. to keep an older car. Although I know there are states that do require annual inspection, my state is not one of them. There is certainly not a nationwide test such as the MOT that exists in the U.K. Although I don't have personal experience, I understand that many older cars are junked because of the expense of getting them to pass the MOT. MOT stands for Ministry of Transport, which was the regulatory body in existence when these annual inspections were first implemented.

What with all this snow we've gotten, I haven't worn heels in about 3 days. Yup, the formula holds true. I can feel THAT.

It goes without saying that where I live, a car is not an option. There is no public transportation here, I swear to God. There are city buses in Des Moines, but you have to get there first. Most of my work is outside the bus routes anyway. It used to be you could take the train up to Des Moines, but that was at least 60 years ago. I can remember exploring the abandoned depot as a kid before they finally tore it down. So it's a car for me. Yeah, my $5,000 car does need some love every once in a while, but luckily I have both the skills and facilities to accomplish most anything that does not require a hoist. Insurance is laughably cheap!

A number of years in my past, I used to chase wind turbines. It's not quite the challenge of climbing high voltage towers, but I did always prefer a boot with a distinct heel on it for climbing those ladders. On the flip side, I found out the hard way that logging boots are not really the best thing for working at any facility that has grated flooring. I can remember my first day out at the Cargill corn plant in the fermentation building. I wore logging boots, and I have no idea how I did not faceplant at some point in the day coming down the grated stairs, as the giant lugged soles would tend to catch on the grating.

It looks like they don't have anything for me, even if I were willing to spend that kind of money for something I couldn't try on first. However, the custom shaft circumference and height sounds like something I could use.

Looks like I will be wearing said pair within a couple of hours. We got snow! I'll have to see if I can't grab a picture. I'm sure I put them somewhere in the New Boots thread last year, but they are actual vintage knee boots, and they are easily the most quality pair I've got. I think they're from the late 70s-early 80s. I bet they weren't cheap when they were new.

I know that if it weren't for heels, I wouldn't get nearly as much exercise. 'Cause who wants to walk around my neighborhood in athletic shoes? How boring! Lots of people, evidently. They have no idea what they're missing. At this time of year, when it's below freezing, there are very few of us out. I run into two types: Hard core runners, those are often college kids, and hard core dog walkers. I will not be walking today, as it has snowed 6 inches overnight, and it is still snowing. No fun to walk in at all, much less in heels.

I intend to keep my '04 Crown Vic as long as they'll let me, and as long as they keep making parts for it.

I will not pretend that my calves were not feeling it by the end of that walk, but I nevertheless wore the boots to church later that morning. I will at least pretend that doing such activity on a regular basis has made my legs look a lot better than they did 12 years ago. I've seen some old pictures of myself, and my legs looked like toothpicks sticking out of my shorts.

Last winter, I purchased some shearling lined knee highs almost specifically for snow removal. They have broad 2 3/8" heels, and that's of a height for me (and I imagine most people on this site) where that's really the same as flats. I bet they'd do just fine in the mud, although I don't ever intend to find out. I hate mud probably as much as @CrushedVamp. However, shoveling snow in my low heeled boots is just as easy as flats.

I guess that's what I was thinking when I said I had Chelsea stilettos. Not so much the heel, but the elastic bit on the side. The only reason I got rid of them is because they were size 9 1/2, which is in most cases simply too big for me, even with inserts, and these were even with socks. I never could make them quite work. Now--off the subject a bit, but I reckon we all like a good story--I tried to do right by my "Chelsea" boots and give them to one of my son's female friends, who was probably 13 or 14 at the time, tall and willowy, and wore size 9 1/2. I do not believe she'd ever even thought about trying heels in her life. Just about the time I thought I had her convinced that maybe she ought to try them under my tutelage, it happened to coincide with the time she decided she wasn't so interested in my son, and she quit hanging around our house. Which in the end was a good thing for everybody.

I have been very lazy about taking any photographs lately. However, a friend captured this still image from the church livestream and sent it to me. I think the only reason this worked out is because the camera operator forgot to zoom back out for a few seconds during the "greet your neighbor" portion of the service. And yes, those are ankle boots I'm wearing. I see I still need a little bit of work on my pageant walk.

I did something that I rarely do yesterday. I went walking in stilettos. I am not 100% sure what possessed me to do it, but I did it, and walked just shy of 2.5 miles, or 4 km. Part of the reason is because I had not shown my Aldo ankle boots any love for a long time. In fact, according to my records, I haven't worn them in two years. That might not be quite right, but it seems accurate. Back in the day, I somehow wore these a lot, as I've evidently had them reheeled three times. They are fairly steep boots, sporting a 5" heel with a 5/8" platform. Here's what I noticed. They're fine. Perfectly stable. Other than having to pay very good attention to where I stepped due to the stiletto heels, they were just like wearing any other high heeled shoes. How I managed in them 10 years ago is another question. I must not have looked so great. I can tell you one thing for sure--ever since I got on this fascination with the SE Asian beauty pageant coaches, my heel tips have started lasting a lot longer. According to my records, I got about 7 miles out of each set of tips in the past. The current tips that are on there have got 5 miles, and I guarantee they will last a lot longer than 2 more miles.

I can say with reasonable certainty that when I'm wearing shorts, I do not look like I just came from the beach. Having said that, I do not think I would choose shorts to travel in. They are fine for cloth seats, but are slimy with leather or vinyl seats after a short while. Also, practicing the organ is almost impossible in shorts. Your legs stick to the bench and you can't move to reach the pedal notes. If one remembers to bring a small towel, 99% of the problem(s) is alleviated.

I think this is a first for this thread! We've gone as far as vintage outboard motors before (nod to @pebblesf), but this is a whole new level! Which is somewhat ironic, because outside of cruise ships, heels and boats don't really mix all that well. Although I do remember travelling on a narrowboat in Thailand, and there was another passenger who was wearing sandals with impressively high heels. I suppose that's a little bit different. It's not like she was piloting/crewing the boat, she was a tourist passenger like me. I wonder if I could find that picture somewhere? It probably got lost on a hard drive that blew up at some point.