mlroseplant

The 20,000 steps wouldn't bother me too much, as long as it was on pavement of some sort. I have proven that a number of times in the past few years, exploring the limits of my stamina in heels. However, I still don't like to walk more than a few steps on anything soft like dirt or grass. Not that it has anything to do with anything, but my son and I noted last weekend that our two "big" lawns, and by "big" I mean about half an acre, require substantially more steps to mow than do our four "small" lawns combined.

It is a vague memory, but I remember that my pediatrician was concerned that my natural gait was too pronated. I had small lifts put in my shoes, underneath the inside parts of my heels. Not exactly arch supports, but something like that. I cannot remember them really feeling like anything. Whether they did any good, I can't say, but I will say that as an adult my shoes have always worn out evenly from side to side. What they should have done is put me in heels from a young age, then maybe I wouldn't have had a terrible looking walk for so many years. Men's or women's shoes make very little difference to me, it's mainly the narrower width that led me to women's shoes, ever since my favorite boot company quit making work boots that were both narrow and short. Evidently, they thought the only people with narrow feet also had long feet.

Yes, I quit wearing high heels in silly situations a long time ago. Some would argue that no, that's not the case, but you don't catch me mowing lawns or doing any sort of heavy lifting in heels anymore. I seriously doubt that I'll ever visit Disney World or any of its iterations, but if I did, I'd probably wear heels. That is undoubtedly bordering on silliness, but silliness that I'm aware of and can deal with.

Another week, another church service. I was feeling rather more ambitious this week, and wore my @Jkrenzer approved shoes. I do believe that my Steve Madden Daisie pumps were the ones that got me started off with my smallish collection of traditional pumps. I do not often wear pumps, partially because I do not have that many venues really to wear them. Also, my budget does not include funds to buy real leather pumps, so my time in them must necessarily be limited. Having said that, I spent about three hours in these yesterday between church and grocery shopping. As noted elsewhere on this forum, these are a little bit difficult on the polished tile floor of my local supermarket. A heel tip replacement to hard rubber would improve things markedly. However, after it was time to change clothes and shoes, I was not ready to take them off. They are actually quite comfortable for 4 5/8" stilettos. I am on the verge of being able to walk in them. I can fool most people. One of the things about playing in the band at church is that, in time of need, I can sneak off to the bathroom during the first part of the sermon. I would estimate I do this about 20% of the time, depending upon how much coffee I have consumed on any given Sunday morning. The only person who can see is whoever is serving as liturgist that morning. Yesterday morning, I quietly opened the sacristy door to make my temporary escape, and the liturgist stopped me and whispered, "You're going to walk down those stairs in those shoes?" I whispered back, "I know! I'm taking my life in my hands, aren't I?" The stairs back there are very steep. Then she mentioned it again after the service. Well, you know, 12 years of more or less constant practice never hurt a thing.

I have never tried metal tips. Frankly, I'm afraid to. Oh, they'd be fine on concrete and such, but the second you skated into anything with a polished floor, watch out! I personally prefer hard rubber, Vibram or something along those lines. They meet the two requirements of being both long lasting and slip resistant. True, you don't get quite the clicky sound, but that's not all bad. But @Bubba136, you're the one with the 60-some years experience. What do you use?

It depends upon your definition of "wear." You mean, like, out? In that case, it would be my Steve Madden Daisie pumps, catalogued elsewhere in this forum. What I am using as house shoes this week are my Style & Co. wedge thongs, which might not be recorded anywhere on this forum. After all they are not really "high" heels.

I suppose we'd have to do some sort of a test or experiment to find out for sure, and I'm not sure who'd be willing to do it--buy and wear kitten heels, that is. On a more serious note, I am not sure whether the tips would in fact wear out significantly faster than a more normal height stiletto heel. So much of that would depend on exactly how you walk. I have changed the way I walk in heels over the last 12 years quite a bit, to the extent that my heel tips on average now last anywhere from 150 - 200% longer than they used to (see what I did there?). This appears to be true for any style of shoe, from stilettos to chunky heels. I now put far less force on the heel at first contact than I used to. This is a conscious effort, but increased ankle flexibility might cause me to do this a bit more naturally than I used to. Theoretically, putting one's heel down very gently should be much easier in kitten heels than higher heels, then very quickly, the whole shoe will be touching the ground, and although more weight will be on the kitten heel as opposed to the normal heel, unless you are doing some sort of odd wiggle as you step, the shoe shouldn't move, and therefore shouldn't wear hardly at all. On the other hand, such factors as heel flex and shank flex could blow that theory out of the water, causing quite a bit of wear when both toe and heel are touching the ground. If somebody wishes to conduct such an experiment, more power to him, but don't take video of it--I do not need to see any more kitten heels, ever.

Oh, I don't think anybody is in the least offended by your post, I'm just saying that according to the terms of this website, we are not allowed to discuss the subject plainly and openly. And especially not at great length. I am not opposed to such discussion, but not here. The real question is whether such a presentation is cringeworthy. I realize that it's a very subjective thing, but it's something that I consider pretty much every day. My problem is that I consider myself a representative of an unofficial movement. It is my desire to show that men can indeed look good in fashions that are outside the "traditional," without pushing the envelope so hard that people immediately think I look totally bizarre. In reference to your recent observation, I think a large part of the reason why I get away with what I get away with is because I am not physically large. I can think of a few situations where I could get away with wearing the Barbie shoes, or indeed heels in general, without looking too extreme where some of my larger male friends and colleagues could not. That is probably a bias on my part, but I am quite open to changing my opinion, as I have done many times over the course of my life.

"I agree with you 1,000%." I had a guy at work who would say this on a fairly regular basis. I pointed out to him several times that this was impossible. I think he understood on some level, but continues to this day to say 1,000%. I think he just likes saying it. It was very much in style to say "give 110%" a few years ago, at least in the U.S. Although this is also theoretically impossible, as an industrial electrician, I can make this one work, and teach a valuable old man lesson at the same time. Most industrial facilities are heavily based on electric motors. Of course, the customer always wants to use the smallest motor possible that will still do the job. Unlike internal combustion engines, most electric motors are designed to run at 100% of their rated capacity continuously. This is why you can replace a 5 hp rated Briggs & Stratton small gasoline engine with a 3 hp electric motor, and whatever it is will probably work better with the "reduced" power. However, electric motors are always rated with something called a "service factor", or "SF" on the nameplate. This is a rating which tells you whether a motor can be pushed beyond its rated capacity briefly. A typical service factor for an industrial motor is 1.2, meaning that for a short period of time, you can overload this motor by 20% without damaging it. Put another way, it can give 120% for short periods of time, e.g., on startup, when the loads are temporarily higher than they are at full running speed. I believe that we humans have a Service Factor also. We can, in fact, give 110% (SF of 1.1) for short periods of time when necessary. However, if we are asked to give 110% on a regular basis, guess what? Just like that electric motor that is overloaded too often, we're going to burn out, and we will have to be rebuilt or replaced. Hopefully not after going down in flames.

I have been getting this persistent advertisement in my social media feed for the last couple of weeks. It is a 30-something woman telling me that the staple of my shoe collection should be kitten heels. Every so often, it seems to happen that somebody, somewhere, thinks that the kitten heel is the greatest compromise ever, and that the fashion vs. function problem has finally been solved once and for all. Luckily, hardly anybody falls for this nonsense. I submit that the kitten heel is the worst of the worst. Not because they are actually the worst looking style ever, but because they pretend to be something that they are not. Yes, Crocs look way worse on an absolute scale, but at least they have no pretense of being anything other than what they are. A 2 inch spike heel has no place in this world. If you need to wear a 2 inch heel, get shoes with block heels, pretty please!

I am not entirely sure what the above reply has to do with Mr. X's "Barbie" shoes, but it is something worth discussing. Not here, and not now, regrettably. I'm afraid we are dangerously close to the line of demarcation. As a reply to @Mr. X, I have mulled upon these shoes for a couple of days. While I have zero objection to them in principle, I agree with the others: Where, exactly, do you plan to wear them? Are you going to the Junior Prom next month? And I don't mean to ask that question just to be difficult, I have a few pairs of "out there" shoes that I have actually worn in public.

Now it is your turn to both be correct. When I was talking about woes with a hole saw, I was mainly referring to trade sizes between 1 1/4" and 2", which in reality are each about 3/8" bigger than that. Smaller than that, we will tend to use a unibit, step bit, cobra bit, Christmas tree bit, whatever you want to call it. Larger than that, we will tend to use a knockout punch, both for practical and safety reasons. For smaller holes, it just doesn't seem worth it to drag out that 50 pound suitcase worth of tool and dies/cutters. In any case, should the situation come up, I'll have to try the "wooden guide" method next time, just to see if it's practical for my purposes. Just to be clear, when there is a problem enlarging a hole in my trade, I'm talking about cutting through substantial sheet metal, perhaps 1.5 mm in thickness. And, typically it needs to be enlarged eccentrically, rather than concentrically, which merely adds to the challenge. The MDF thing might be just the ticket, if there's room to fit it in and clamp it somehow. Weren't we talking about boots or something?

I shall have to remember that method the next time I am faced with such a situation. I don't think I've ever run into a situation where I didn't use the pilot bit on purpose, as in @Puffer's project. The usual reason, if not the exclusive reason, is that I need to enlarge an existing hole, and I don't have a knockout punch available to me. Often this happens because somebody selected the wrong size hole saw to create the opening. Sometimes it is an apprentice, and sometimes, though far less often, it is me.

You must have a drill press. Otherwise, I can't see how you were able to use a hole saw without its pilot bit with any accuracy whatsoever. I've learned a few tricks about how to get away with that in a pinch, but it's never pretty. However you did it, nice work out of you!

This week's church OOTW. There is nothing notable about it, except for the fact that this is the first time this year I was able to wear sandals. It finally warmed up, but it's only temporary. By the end of the week, we're looking at lows uncomfortably close to the freezing mark. I felt like I wanted to wear tan sandals yesterday with wide legged trousers, but my first choice was at the extreme steep end of my wearable range. Due to some strenuous physical activity yesterday, I elected not to wear those, but went instead with what I call my "pageant" shoes. Their actual designation is Steve Madden Dezzzy (yes, that's with three z's), but their very high heel with thick platform reminds me of the pageant shoes that every southeast Asian girl wears in a beauty pageant. Of course the real pageant shoes usually have a somewhat thinner heel and an ever thicker platform, but you get the idea. I get a nearly 6 inch heel with less than 4 1/2" of steepness. My son just bought himself a motorbike, and here I am somewhat awkwardly posing on it, at his suggestion. No, I did not ride the thing in those heels. A few minutes later in real time---Now that I have actually loaded the photos, I notice that I wore a nearly identical outfit sometime last August, minus the tie. I think it's the same exact shirt, pants, and shoes. I guess you'll have that from time to time if you don't document things, and with outfits, I certainly don't.

It used to be that heels were more common in the southeast of the U.S. than elsewhere. I am not sure whether that is true anymore.

I went to the bank to draw out cash in anticipation of my new motorbike purchase, documented elsewhere, and one of the tellers was wearing purple suede stiletto boots. I'm guessing 3 3/4" heel, maybe 4" if she has a bigger shoe size, so pretty decent. Had I been wearing heels myself (I came directly from my construction job), I would have asked/commented, but I didn't, instead. It's been a long time since I've seen anybody wearing real heels around here. I mean, besides me. I have half a mind to find some excuse to go to the bank for the next few Fridays just to see if that was a one-off.

Yeah, I seem to remember that one, but wasn't it a billiard ball? I did a quick Google search, and was unable to come up with it. There are many similar images, but not the one you're talking about, and I'm pretty sure I know which one that is. This is where our opinions diverge. While such images are kind of cool, it is never just about the shoes, it's about the total package, and I'd much rather see if he or she (in my case, probably a she) can actually walk in whatever shoes are being publicized. According to reporting, Zendaya's limit is Louboutin Hot Chicks. Evidently, those about broke her. Probably sensational reporting, but that's what I heard.

I don't know anything about her either, other than she is quite attractive, and evidently likes to wear high heels a lot.

I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that my shoe collection is down to at most 105, possibly 104. I had two shoe failures over the weekend. First, a strap broke on my BCBGeneration Quintin wedge sandals. I might be able to fix it, I might not. This is not a super big deal because I only use them as house slippers, and there are usually more available on Poshmark or some such outlet. The second failure, and this resulted in outright disposal, is my Sam & Libby Slashlin derbies. I had mentioned in an earlier post that about 15% of my collection hadn't been worn in over a year, so I decided to dig into some of the 15% and see if there was a reason why. 20 minutes before I was supposed to be at church, I pulled on these lace up shoes and they were very, very stiff, to the point where a substantial part of the fake patent leather started to peel off when flexed enough to get the shoes on. I'm editing out a large portion of the story, but I eventually decided to wear them anyway, one last time as a farewell. They weren't bad, and actually I caught myself on camera walking and carrying myself like I think I want to, the modest 3 7/8" steepness of the shoes probably aiding in that. I got home just fine and snapped these pictures (more about that in a moment), but didn't change clothes right away. I had some errands to run, and I didn't want to change clothes just yet. I have always thought that the shanks were a bit weak in these shoes, and afternoon proved that to be true. At some point, the right heel completely buckled under, even though it is still firmly attached. Peeling finish or not, that made my decision for me. I am not that upset. There's a reason I haven't worn these much--they kinda ugly! In other news, I got a new (to me) motorbike over the weekend. I have toyed with the idea of getting a maxi-scooter for years, and now I have finally pulled the trigger. It's a Yamaha Majesty 400, and so far I love it. My reasons for wanting such a machine are several: 1) Built-in storage capacity, making it much easier to commute to work and get groceries where I would normally have to use the car. 2) It's got a fairing, allowing me to ride in more comfort in more weather conditions. 3) It's a scooter. I can ride in heels again. I will miss shifting my own gears, but whatever. The only thing that remains to be seen is the fuel economy. By all accounts, it's supposed to get up there around 60 mpg, but that remains to be seen.

I made the decision long ago to stop at 1/8" increments. I should just go metric, as the millimeter is a finer increment than the 16th of an inch. ____________ Today is probably the final batch of statistics I have, and it's much simpler than heel height--it's shoe style. I can't think of any more useful information that I can draw out of the data I have collected. Sandals: 60.4% Pumps: 16.0% Oxfords: 4.7% Boots: 4.7% Clogs: 10.4% Other: 3.8% _____________ Percentage of sandals that are mules: 73.4 Percentage of all shoes that are backless, i.e., mules and clogs: 56.6 Number of weeks that I am overdue for a pedicure: 2 Time to get the show on the road. It's supposed to actually be warm next week.

Being as it's Saturday, I guess it's time for a more substantial statistics dump. I did try to do an estimate on how many of my heels are dressy vs. how many are casual. I have decided that this is too subjective and difficult a task to get an accurate number. I think it is clear that clogs can never be dressy, but how about wooden heeled sandals? I think usually not, but my Alaia sandals surely come close. Can a wedge sandal ever be dressy? Yes, but under what circumstances? Anyway, that's a fool's errand, so I all I can say is that roughly 40% of my shoes you might call "dressy," and the other 60% are more "casual." The more normal statistics are heel height and footbed steepness. For absolute heel height, as measured up the back of the heel, but perpendicular to the floor, we have the following: Less than 4": 14.2% 4" to including 4 1/2": 31.1% Over 4 1/2" to including 5": 28.3% Over 5": 26.4% Over the past several years, there has been a shift from the third category to the second. This is because a smaller percentage of my shoes are platforms than was the case before, so absolute heel height has shrunk in certain categories. However, in the next batch of numbers, you can see that this has caused the number to shift in the footbed steepness category even more dramatically. Steepness, for those of you who don't know, or who use a different definition, I measure steepness by subtracting out the height of the platform, if any. For example, my Nine West Plantera pumps have an impossibly tall 5 1/2" heel, but they also have a 1" platform, so the total steepness is a less impressive 4 1/2". I started at 3 1/2 inches because that is where to my mind that heels start feeling like heels. Less than 3 1/2": 15.1% 3 1/2" to including 4": 28.3% Over 4 to including 4 1/2": 46.2% Over 4 1/2": 10.4% As you can see, there is a big increase in the more than 4 to 4 1/2" category. If you included steepnesses that were right at 4" in that category, the number would be even more overwhelming. I guess this is where I like to be, but there is a variation even within this category. With 4 inch or less, I can just slide/pull them on and go. With 4 1/2 inch, that is highly inadvisable without preflight. As always, if I have a shoe which has no footbed liner or cushion, which is often the case with wooden heels, I "discount" the heel/platform height by 1/4" so that we are comparing heights more equally.

Well, you really can't. As you see, I've got 15% of my collection that I've gone over a year without wearing. Maybe, MAYBE if I worked an office job and wore heels truly full time, I could juggle 100+ pairs, but you've got to figure, I go outside in heels about three times a week. Church on Sunday, choir on Wednesday, and one other miscellaneous time per week. Maybe more in the summer. I suppose the math theoretically works out in that case (around 150-200 wears per year) , but not in real life. I'm not going to put on 12 cm patent leather pumps to go pick up a few pork chops at the grocery store. Especially not in the summer. There's another statistic I guess I could pull--dressy heels vs. casual heels. A bit subjective, perhaps, but not too much so. The statistic of the day is that 34.9% of my collection are stiletto heels. That percentage might be rather higher if I didn't have an affinity for wooden heeled sandals and clogs, which make up a mere 27.4%. There is no real way to measure, since shoes do not have odometers or hour meters on them, but I would guess that the 27.4% gets worn in the real world several times as much as the 34.9%.

Yup, that's what I figured. I'm not saying that they don't fit, I'm saying that they don't last very long without failing in one way or another.

I suppose there is something to be said for just walking, but so many people do it badly, even in flats. I suppose it's just like singing--everybody can do it, but few do it well. There is more to the story for me, though. I have always been fascinated by gait, at first among our four-legged friends. Even though it was considered a "fault," I always found it rather charming when my German Shepherd Dog mix, Sadie, would sort of turn at an angle when she broke into a trot, because otherwise, her trailing and leading feet would hit each other. At one time, I could tell you how many miles per hour was the line of demarcation between walk and trot, trot and canter, canter and gallop. If I overanalyze human gait, I come by it honestly. I'm a bit of a gait geek.