mlroseplant

Solvent weld. I have never heard that term, but it's probably technically more accurate than what we call it here in the U.S.--glue. As in PVC glue, and there is nothing quite like that smell. At any rate, I looked up the specs on the American standard, National Pipe Thread (which does not apply in the instant case), and it would appear that they differ slightly from the British Standard Pipe. The only thing they seem to have in common is the same thread coarseness for trade sizes of 1/2 and 3/4".

Here are photos of my new main waste line, as it is married to the old cast iron stack. In fact, there are a couple of threaded PVC fittings in there. Can you spot them, @Cali? Personally, I hate dealing with PVC threads--they're generally a pain in the neck, at least from an electrical perspective.

Annnndd....both these pictures are turned 90º, and I can't get them un-turned. Oh well. That happens randomly, but thankfully only occasionally, when one uploads pictures to this site.

12 hours ago, Puffer said:

I await developments with great interest, and not a little concern.   Maybe we should have a 'Who has installed a new pipe?' thread.   

Yes, we should absolutely start a pipe thread! The irony being that my new pipe is not threaded, as it is PVC.

Once again, these mules are not necessarily all that new to me, but yesterday was the first time I actually wore them in public. So, in fact, they are new to you!

Charles David brand, model name unknown. I am sure I got them from either ebay or Poshmark, one. I am also sure I got them because I thought they were beautiful, which they are. I certainly did not get them because I thought they would be practical, which they are not. For one, they are real leather suede, which generally does not work well with Iowa weather, but it also turns out that they are hard to walk in. Something about them seems to be a bit unbalanced, I can't quite put my finger on it. I've also had this experience with my only other pair of Charles David shoes, they were the same way. Beautiful, but unbalanced. Create your own inferences about that.

The overly setback heel is 4 3/4", and though it's not obvious, there is a slight platform, so I'm giving it an overall pitch of 4 1/2". This is not beyond my skill set, but I do not like walking in these at all. I wore them for about 4 hours, and my feet didn't hurt at all, but somehow, these mules still suck. I can't really explain it. Sorry to be a bummer for two reviews in a row.

Church OOTW: This was kind of difficult to come up with, simply because my entire wardrobe is currently piled up on the living room couch, due to some major plumbing work that is occurring in its usual spot. The famous pipe that @Puffer admires, featured in many of my past photos of shoes, may undergo some changes today! At least I hope it's today.

I'm going to list these in the "New Sandals" section also, but the rest of the outfit is nothing special, other than the fact that I had to dig out the ironing board before I put it on, due to its position toward the bottom of the pile. The polo shirt is from Walmart, and the pants were bought at Costco.

I have had the mules for quite a little while, but I've never worn them out until today. There is a reason for that. They are not uncomfortable, but they are a little bit hard to walk in. More elsewhere.

22 hours ago, AlexC94 said:

These CL boots are UK7.5 EU40.5, and as far as I looked into it it's recommended that you go half a size up so in theory these could be a perfect fit for me 😲

Evidently, you are the same size as me, and we are looking for a drummer. Too bad you live so far away.

@AlexC94,What was the size conversion on this particular model? I am US 9/UK 7, and I find that EU 40 is generally correct for me, and NOT EU 39, as many charts would suggest. I ran across a guy (don't remember where) who seemed to suggest that in CL, I would be 41, which seems crazy to me, but that's what he said. I'm looking for another perspective.

@Jkrenzer, I am afraid that leather vs. some other material for the sole is a subject upon which we part ways. I used to be a leather sole man, back when I wore "men's" dress shoes and cowboy boots. I wore through a few soles (and had them replaced), but it took quite a little while. When I switched to so-called women's styles, I figured that leather was better, and it may be, but not for me personally. On women's shoes, those thin little pieces of hide that they call soles not only wear out quickly, but are easily ruined by inclement weather. I will admit that rubber soles are no good for dancing or beauty pageant turns. I'll take that compromise.

I do most of my walking on concrete, that may make a huge difference.

9 hours ago, Cali said:

Unprofessional. We've worked together for at least 15 years. We both wear 4 inch heels all the time, it's a very smaill club at work.

 

Fun thing, she also told me she was walking in  pair of platform sandals and the platform separated from the shoe.  I had that happen in the spring too.

That happened to me three! In fact, I believe it was last spring.

I kind of get it, as a part of fantasy. I mean, it's taking the general idea of a stiletto to an extreme, a longstanding human pastime. Look at some of the ridiculous cars and trucks people have built over the years. But no, actual needle heels will not work in the real world. You couldn't use these as daily drivers, for the above mentioned reasons and more.

It seems as though a good percentage of our posts involve quibbling over the little things. I'm going to spin this one, and say that's a good thing, because otherwise this site might have died a slow and lonesome death from lack of posting.

15 hours ago, Cali said:

@mlroseplant have you tried adding extra holes with a hole punch?

I did not really explain what the problem is very well. The actual problem is that the buckles you can see in the picture(s) are merely decorative. Yes, you can undo the buckles, but it is not possible to get them to move to another hole because the two halves of the strap are actually permanently attached to each other independent of the buckle. So I guess I'm out of luck.

It's not so much the platform in and of itself that makes many of this season's offerings objectionable. It's the sheer size and mass of the whole package. Being on social media, I have seen many pictures of my friends' kids going back to school now that summer is over, at least in spirit. The girls pair the absolute hugest shoes it is possible to get outside of a costume shop with floaty little skirts or tiny little shorts. A disproportional look for sure.

I went to a shoe store to buy my son some new shoes for school. Of course, I had to look on the other side of the store to see what awfulness was available for me. I was not disappointed. There was not one shoe that did not feature a massively wide heel instead of something more proportional to the human body.

We've dealt with platforms before, at least twice before in my lifetime. Some people like them, some people hate them. Some people like them in moderation (I would like to think I fall into this camp). It's just that the latest iteration of the platform is so exaggerated in every proportion as to be cartoonish.

Though these are not exactly new to me, I can't find where I have posted them yet, at least not descriptively. Nine West "How Rude" sandals. Which is a weird name, weirder than most, but that's what they are called. I really like the tri-colored gold theme, and the 4 3/4" stiletto heel with a whisper of a platform makes these shiny shoes have effectively a 4 3/8" height, which is not too steep to be practical. However, these are not comfortable for me personally. The strap that goes across the toes bites into my foot, especially my little toes, and after about 2 hours of wearing, I was ready to get them off of me. The buckle(s) is almost functional, but the adjustment possibilities are too coarse, and therefore not useful. I will give these shoes a couple more chances, but they're probably not going to be in my collection much longer, which is really too bad, because I like the look rather a lot.

Never had a pair of Gianni Bini before. Let us know how they work out! For something you just bought at a retail outlet, they look refreshingly normal!

19 hours ago, Shyheels said:

Well at long last I have gone and bought myself a pair of tall white boots, something I’ve wanted since I was a kid and secretly fancied a pair of go-go boots as worn by a pretty red-haired girl in my seventh grade class. these aren’t exactly go-go boots, but are a nice OTK approximation, in cream rather than the classic white patent, but I am pleased with them. I found them by accident when I just happened to glance at the Long Tall Sally website, on spec, and after wavering a couple of days, bought a pair - even though space is very! Very tight in my new off-grid home!

They are not real leather - the only pair of boots I have that aren’t - and I certainly notice the difference in feel and quality, but in the other hand they were not expensive, fit well and are comfortable.

https://www.longtallsally.com/lts-cream-heeled-over-the-knee-boots-in-standard-d-fit-p
 

I would still love to find a nice pair of white patent go-go boots but the only ones I ever see are cheap things in fancy dress shops.

That is pretty much what I remember also, white patent, with maybe a slightly shorter heel and just below the knee height. My neighbor girl had such a pair, and I seem to recall trying them on until her mom caught us. I can't remember whether the idea was mine or the neighbor girl's--or both.

I wonder if anybody is still around to read this, but I guess I'll post it anyway. My Steve Madden "Dezzy" sandals, which are fairly new to me, are not really my style. You folks may know me as a platform guy, but usually within reason. This is my second pair of sandals that feature what I would call a "huge" platform. I call them my Southeast Asian Pageant Shoes, but with "only" a 1 1/2" platform, they fall rather short of that mark. Nevertheless, they seem huge to me.

Balancing that out is an equally giant 5 3/4" heel, which is somewhat cone-shaped and about 7/8" in diameter at the bottom. They are also my only pair of wrap-around ankle strap shoes, and the diameter of my ankles actually falls neatly into correspondence with where the holes are punched in the strap where you buckle it up. You can't really see the straps as presented here, but I didn't think of that when I took this picture yesterday. Sorry. They don't walk or wear too badly at all, believe it or don't. I don't feel like I'm wearing a 1 1/2" platform, though I have yet to step on a pebble or twig lying in the road. However, I feel like I now need to work on my ramp walk, and my full turns.

Church Outfit of the Week (OOTW). Does anybody else appreciate the difference between an acronym and an initialism? I got a 3 page list the other week of Company X "acronyms," which was actually very handy, because they use all of these abbreviations constantly, and act like people know what the hell they are talking about. However, 90% of these abbreviations were not in fact acronyms, but initialisms. And I expect Company X people to know what the hell I'm talking about.

Back on point, the flared trouser seems to be coming back into style. Naturally, it is a slightly different cut and presentation than my old recycled clothing, but I didn't think it looked too bad, especially with my now-back-in-style-but-still-dated-looking platform sandals.

Oh, come now. It is no worse than the sound of pickleball.

Although some of the items I may post on here in the near future may have been purchased some time ago, these were actually purchased fairly recently, in June. I got these Bebe (model designation unknown) wooden mules via ebay, for about 45 bucks by the time you include shipping.

I would say that these have effectively become my backup pair of walking shoes, but it has been a rather long road getting there. The specs would indicate qualification for such: 4 3/4" heel with a 1" platform, giving a rather shallow rise of 3 3/4". Put that on top of a 1" broad heel, and this would seem to have a great deal of utility. However, out of the box (or bubble wrap, as the case may be), the leather was so stiff that it caused minor injury for quite a while after about a mile. Finally, I have got them to where they will not cause me harm after a two mile walk. I even worked a farmer's market in them and they weren't terrible.

I have had to add foot cushions in them because they have stretched out to the point that they're a bit too big, but with that addition they seem to have settled down quite nicely into everyday shoes. But they are extremely loud. At 5:30 in the morning when everything is quiet, I would guess you can hear me coming from a block away. I would guess that this will change when reheeling is necessary.

I thought of you yesterday @Jkrenzer. Mine's a lot smaller, but potentially just as problematic. Although I was actually wearing stilettos (believe it or don't), I was only after a six-pack of Guinness stout, so my view was not obstructed.

It seems like an exceptionally bad place to put that, heels or no heels. I shall have to check and see where they have placed the drain in my local favored beer cooler and take careful note of it.

Evidently, I have been studying this for two years, and I think I finally understand how this walking gracefully business is supposed to work. Being able to actually do it myself is another matter altogether!

On 8/7/2023 at 5:16 PM, Jkrenzer said:

I wiped out on a grate inside local grocery about a month ago carring a case of beer. Never saw it. Went down hard on my left hip and ended up with a deep bone bruise. No damage to my heels and saved the case of beer. Bruise lasted two weeks turned many colors. 

Message, bring you cart in to the beer cooler, watch wear you step but seriously keep wearing the stilettos. 

Was it a French drain inside the cooler then? Or just a regular round drain?

I wasn't so much making a statement about having to reheel shoes as I was about evidently having significantly changed my walk in the past year. Even after 11 years, I still have days when I feel like I'm walking poorly. Not every day, though. The increased life of the top lifts is just serendipitous.

Once again, it is now time to talk about heel top lifts, or tips, or caps, or whatever you want to call them. I have noticed that over the past year mine are lasting significantly longer than they used to. And by significantly, I mean twice as long or better.

Since I've been going to the same cobbler for a decade, we can eliminate that variable from the explanation. As further proof of this, I have two examples of stock heels that have lasted significantly longer than the first pair (when I have bought duplicate shoes).

Shown in the instant case with pictorial evidence, I got the stock heels on my BCBGirls "Bonny" sandals (pair No. 3) to last for 42.7 miles before they completely disintegrated, vs. 21.0 miles on the previous pair. Typically I would get about 40 miles out of replacement Vibram heels on this same shoe.

Another example is my True Religion mules, which are now my second most durable shoes ever, with 121 miles on the clock. The last time I had these reheeled, in September of 2022, I got 44.8 miles out of the previous Vibram heel caps. Now, less than a year later, I have logged 69.7 miles on the new Vibram heel caps, and they are still not all the way worn out.

My cobbler is not really happy about this, but it has nothing to do with his work, whether good or shoddy. It has everything, I believe, to do with my recently refined style of walking. It is difficult to change the way one does something as fundamental as walking, and I'm still working on it, but evidently something has happened. I've noticed that even the heels on my work boots are lasting way longer than they did before.

I cannot tell you the exact mechanics of it, but in an effort to keep my knee as straight as possible when the leading foot touches down, I have tried to improve my ankle flexibility. I believe this has resulted in a much gentler heel strike, and therefore less wear on the heel cap. I believe I also look better aesthetically, as a bonus.

The tar-filled control joints on a concrete city street. Or where they have patched cracks. Wearing bifocals and trying to see what you're about to step on while trying to hold your head up high so as to appear confident and have good posture.