mlroseplant

3 hours ago, Steve63130 said:

Mlroseplant,

You inspired me to get that same style (in brown), which I did (found it on Ebay) and I have enjoyed wearing them. I still have lots of distance left on them, so I'm not about to trash them any time soon. They are good quality shoes and fit me nicely. They are a fraction of an inch higher than I normally wear, so they are among the highest that I can wear comfortably. I'm in awe that you find them so low! Anyway, thanks again for the inspiration!

Steve

Haha, Steve, I really thought about tagging you in this post, but I knew you would catch on without a tag!

1 hour ago, MackyHeels said:

mroseplant: Happy you shared a great experience from such a amazing female. Inspiring and encouraging to hear such positive comments from a 21 year old college woman.

Not to be critic or take you off your cloud, but is there chance the college woman is indebted thus being polite of your befriending and mentoring?

Is it wrong for me to assume your college age female has less of a robust social skills or lifestyle keeping to her studies thus limiting her interaction with others. What i'm getting at,  when young girls 18+ have limited friends often alone away from family, no guidance, as in your situation being the only mentor with your wife. These young women often bend to peer pressure with similar age young friends that what we on this forum wear is silly, laughable, inappropriate strange, weird. Basically learned behaviour from others the feminine style for men are deemed not correct or distressing only so they fit in with peer group mindset.  While it's not the case with said college woman you described she is grateful being befriended with your hospitality and learned your good person despite her mom's distress of your attire.  

 

Forgive me for saying so, MackyHeels, but it is apparent from this post and many past posts that for whatever reason, you have a basic distrust of women. At the very least, you have some sort of a chip on your shoulder. I'm not sure what experiences have shaped your attitude, but I'm sorry for that. My experiences have been much different. I find that women are much more understanding, much more accepting of me than are men.

Our newly graduated "niece" has way better social skills than me. She is a sorority girl, and is one of the most well known and popular girls on the college campus. She graduated magna cum laude, despite English not being her native tongue. She already has a job to go to after graduation. She's definitely not a wallflower. As far as her mother's surprised reaction, you have to remember that, although things are changing fast, with my generation and older (pushing 50), the social norms in Vietnam are much like they were in the 1950s here. The mom is not necessarily distressed, but she is surprised. I have my own previous reputation and rapport with her before she saw me this time. I'm sure my cháu (niece) has explained everything to her mother.

I am sorry that you have evidently had some bad experiences. I just haven't had those bad experiences, so I will take what the people I know and love at face value, without cynicism.

Last night, after I got home from visiting my shoe buddy (mentioned and pictured in my ongoing personal thread/blog), I was contacted by a young woman we know who has just graduated from college this month. The reason we know her is because she is from the same city as my wife, Hanoi, Vietnam. Some 3 1/2 years ago, I received a telephone call from a friend who works at our local college, saying he had a freshman  in his office from Hanoi, and she seemed kind of lonely and homesick, and would we be interested in meeting her. Of course, we said yes, and we became mentors of a sort to this young lady. Oh, and did I mention, she's rather attractive, to put it mildly. 

At any rate, I got to chatting with her last night, and somehow the subject of my heel wearing came up. I thought about reproducing our chat here, but decided against it for the sake of her privacy. But basically, she said that her mom (whom I've met several times, both here and in Vietnam), was very surprised about my choice of footwear. Unfortunately, I didn't really get details of that conversation, but she did say very clearly that she thought my choice of footwear was really not all that strange to her, and that she had absolutely no problem with it. She even hinted that maybe I should try wearing a skirt! Just FYI, she herself favors extremely short skirts and shorts.

It can be a strange dynamic between a 49 year old guy and a 21 year old woman, so I didn't really say much, other than to thank her for accepting me the way I am. 

The only reason I am posting this is because it was a huge confidence booster, and I hope it can help others know that there ARE females out there who are open minded. Maybe there is hope. 

It is with a bit of a heavy heart that I am retiring one of my oldest pairs of sandals. I've had them almost exactly 4 years, and while they were not my first heeled sandals, they were the first pair that I had the confidence to wear out regularly, the first pair of heels I wore with skinny jeans (rather than boot cut), the first pair I wore with shorts. They are also the first pair of heels that I walked in for more than 5 miles continuously. They have never been to the cobbler for any reason, despite having over 100 recorded miles on them. I have never seen heels so durable. 

They are my Söfft Belecia strappy mules, with 3 1/2" heels and not really any platform, but just a thick padded sole. They are completely trashed after so much wear. My little toes now stick outside the straps after only a few dozen steps because the leather is so worn out (yuck! not a good look!).

But I have moved on. I just simply never wear heels that low any more. I feel like there is some sentimental value there, but not enough to take up space in my life. Goodbye, Belicias. It's been a good run. 

I have had experiences that run the gamut. I've had expensive shoes that have failed catastrophically fairly quickly, and I've had cheap shoes (I'm thinking of my Vera Wang boots from Kohl's) that I can't seem to wear out. 

As far as shoes being ruined, it's usually straps that break on sandals that can't be successfully repaired. I did bend a shank on a pair of pumps that I'd had for several years with no problems up to that point, and I don't remember any specific event (e.g. tripping over a door threshold or something like that) that would have caused it to bend like that. 

I can't wear heels to work (construction), but I do walk a lot in my heels, and often record the mileage. Typically, I get at most 10 miles out of a hard rubber toplift (heel tip) on a stiletto heel, usually more like 8. On slightly thicker heels (3/4"), that figure increases to more like 40 or 50 miles. I usually walk pretty fast, and I weigh about 135 pounds, or about 62 kg. As they say, your mileage may vary!

22 hours ago, pebblesf said:

So cool, love working on my car in boots!  Tell me more about why you are replacing the intake manifold?  Plastic?  Don't know how they get away with making these parts out of plastic, doesn't take long before heat and vibration causes the plastic to warp/crack/fail.  I replaced the injectors on my Toyota, but that required removing the large aluminum intake plenum, which involved removing so much "plumbing".  I took quite a few pictures during disassembly, no way I could have gotten all that stuff back in place correctly without some help.  The Toyota place wanted $1500 to replace the injectors and could not even guarantee this repair would fix the intermittent problem, thank God it did...

This car has got the GM 3.8 V6 in it, which is basically a solid engine, with one ongoing problem: Yes, the upper intake is made of plastic, and the spot where the EGR valve pokes through eventually burns through it, compromising the gasket and allowing coolant to be sucked into the cylinders. However, because this is a low mileage car, it hadn't yet failed in this way. What DID fail is this little plastic elbow that goes between the lower intake manifold and the water pump. It just broke suddenly and started spewing coolant everywhere. Luckily, this failure seems to have occurred in my driveway, and possibly even after I had shut the engine down, so I had no engine damage.

I decided that while I had it torn down far enough to replace that little elbow, I would replace everything, since something was bound to fail soon. So I replaced the lower intake gaskets with the improved design, upgraded the plastic heater bypass elbow with an aluminum one, and bought a whole new upper intake manifold with the improved design. I should be good to go for another 100,000, don't you think? This all cost me about 200 USD, not counting new coolant and new oil and filter.

Oh, and speaking of injectors, I used to have a minivan on which I had to replace an injector, and it was similar to what you describe, having to remove the upper intake. On the GM 3.8, it's the opposite. You have to remove the injector assembly before you can remove the upper intake, so it's a much easier repair. While I had it apart, I cleaned up my injectors real well, and it has made a noticeable difference in throttle response at small throttle openings.

I hope this explanation was sufficient.

8 hours ago, Steve63130 said:

I think the thing that bothers me is the disconnect between shorts (warm weather) and long sleeves (cold weather).

Love the shoes - all of them.

Steve

But.  .  . that's what ALL the girls are wearing now! Hahahahaha. No, seriously. At least all the girls in Korea. Even in the winter.

I think you're right, though. For some reason, it doesn't suit me as well as it suits the Korean girls. Even though every fashion mag says that if you're going to wear shorts with heels, you need to cover up everything else, I don't think that works on me. I think I will find that if I swap the long sleeves for short ones, it will make a big difference.

And thanks for the compliment on the shoes! I know that high stilettos are not your thing, but I have come to embrace them for myself. For serious walking, however, I tend to go with thicker heels, if for no other reason than the toplifts (heel tips) last several times longer.

I am just getting to the point this year where I might be able to turn a negative reaction into a positive. Up to now, I have just ignored stares, or done something to make the starer feel slightly embarrassed. I think Cali's approach may be suitable for me as well, now that I'm more comfortable. 

11 hours ago, jeremy1986 said:

I found @hhboots's suggestions to be spot on! This is what I did with my wife (after 13 or so years of marriage...) - she does not completely understand. but she somewhat accepts.

That's pretty much my situation also. No real understanding, but acceptance most of the time. I'm thankful for that.

19 hours ago, Thighbootguy said:

If the picture you posted in May is your friend, she appears to be a little shorter than you and she is wearing shorts with her blouse hem covering the waist.

Different friend! It's our choir director. The friend you are referencing is my long-time Vietnamese friend, shoe buddy, and lover of wearing shorts with high heels! And yes, she is substantially shorter than me, unlike the choir director, who is about my height.

Yeah, I had thought that part of it was camera angle, and part of it was my friend's and my physiological differences. Her legs are longer than mine, and her neck is shorter, although we're about the same height. So although I wanted to be a little bit dressier than a t-shirt, I tried again, same angle, same shorts, different shirt, not tucked in. I think it's a noticeable improvement. In addition to hiding where my true waist is, the t-shirt is closer fitting and doesn't look as bulky up top.

In addition to the before and after pictures, my 8 year old son got involved and wanted me to wear different shoes of his choosing. The pictures he took are from a more normal, natural angle, even though he's still very short! I rarely.  .  . OK, I have never until now.  .  . photobombed this forum, but I'm going to make an exception to show my more whimsical side. He was trying to get me to ham it up a little bit. Perhaps I look a little less severe when I am trying to be funny. One thing I discovered is that, although I am loathe to wear closed toed shoes with shorts, I think the pumps actually look the best with this outfit!

I was doing some experimenting this morning. I wanted to try something a little different, so I took inspiration from me and my wife's young-ish Korean friend.  The outfit pictured here is loosely based on what she was wearing last night when we met her for dinner. I'm not totally unhappy with the look, but I think it could be better. Something is not quite right, and I hope that the something is not that I'm a guy. 

1 hour ago, Thighbootguy said:

I had a pair of sandals similar to those a long time ago and the flapping drove me nuts.  I'll suggest the Red Green solution.

For folks unfamiliar with the Red Green TV show, he had "Handyman's Corner" segment where he would fix anything/everything(broken or not) with the "Handyman's secret weapon" - Duct Tape.

Those sandals do look good on you.

Although your "solution" to the problem is quite humorous, I actually like that sound. In fact, to me, the flap/click, flap/click, flap/click sound that shoes like this produce when walking on a hard surface is one of the happiest sounds on earth! 

And thank you for the compliment!

On 5/14/2017 at 7:58 PM, Cali said:

And If you ever break a nail, get an acrylic nail.

Nah. I don't do acrylics. If my nails break, they break. Part of my secret is moisturizing several times a day and wearing gloves a lot. Besides, I just had to cut my nails anyway. I'm playing bass this Sunday at church. The nails that provide sufficient volume and proper timbre on guitar produce an objectionable clicking sound on electric bass. It's a trick to get just the right compromise. 

I am happy to announce that I am celebrating 5 years of heeling in public! It was on this day (actually, I'm not 100% sure of the actual date, but looking at a 2012 calendar, it logics out to this date) in 2012 that I first went to an event wearing what were obviously shoes with elevated, separate heels on them. An event where people would know me. The shoes I wore were nothing compared to what I wear regularly today, but they were different enough to make me terrified. Still, nobody said a word, and I think most people didn't even notice. I was wearing black leather clogs with a composite bottom and a 3 1/2" chunky heel under long boot cut jeans. 1" platform, so the rise was very modest. Oh, they seemed so high back then!

Today, I wear heels daily, and have over 50 pairs. I really don't like to buy anything lower than 5" these days (with some sort of platform), anything lower just doesn't look right to me. However, I will admit to having bought several pairs of open toed mules that are slightly lower recently. Well, they were just too darn cute, even though they don't technically meet my height requirements. Still, they're all over 4 1/2", close enough. One of my new pair is pictured below, Jessica Simpson mules, 4 5/8" heels.  Please excuse the background--I've had a lot going on inside and outside the garage lately, as many of you are aware. They are the perfect color, and after a few wearings, the fit is amazing! I haven't yet certified them for a full 2 miles yet (my keep/toss rule generally), but I'm sure they'll pass easily. I've walked 1.3 miles in them all at once so far with nothing but delight. I like the unique swirly color on the heels. I like how they flap when you walk, but they don't feel like they're going to fall off your feet. The only thing that would make them any better is if the heel were 1/2" taller, but now I'm just complaining over nothing, right?

Anyway, happy anniversary to me, and good wishes to everyone else out there in the community!

6 hours ago, Cali said:

I'm missing bones in my hand and shoulders now, so working on cars is left for someone else. Besides, why mess up a perfectly good manicure with gel polish, let along a nice pair of heels.

1,500 bucks, that's why! That's a lot of manicures! Some things you can't do in gloves. Still, I didn't break any guitar playing nails, and whatever damage I did can be cleaned up with a nail file and buffer. All is well! I will finish up tomorrow, and have my car back again. 

8 hours ago, Thighbootguy said:

When working on a car I have never been able to keep anything clean.  How are you managing to keep those shoes that clean, or was this the before picture?

 

 It was not a particularly dirty job. Just frustrating. 

Day 2, intake manifold replacement. I watched a YouTube video this morning, and the dude, unedited, disassembled everything I need to in less than 20 minutes. I struggled yesterday for 3 hours, and accomplished very little. Today, it is very clear how I should proceed. This should be a piece of cake. 

Which begs the question, why is this a $1500+ repair at a shop? I guess you pay them for what they know, not what they do, same as my trade. Thank you YouTube! I wish I had seen this video yesterday morning, I'd probably be almost done by now. 

With my favorite BCBG wedge thongs, model Sarong. I consider them to be mid-heels, but they're still fun!

14 hours ago, Thighbootguy said:

No doubt in my mind.

You son got a good shot of your shoes.

As with any mechanical repair... protect your hands.

10 hours ago, Steve63130 said:

And your eyes!

Good photos!

Steve

Dont worry, fellas! I always wear gloves and safety glasses, and my son does too. I might fall a little short in the foot protection department, however! 

What? Youse don't recognize those legs? 

Workin' on the car. I HATE working on the car, but I can't see paying $1,500 in labor costs, when I'm perfectly qualified to do it myself. If I were a rich man....photos by my 8 year old son, who is a pretty good mechanic already. He still loves it. 

I recently joined Instagram, and by complete chance, I happened to become interested in watching videos of pole dancers (the super athletic competition kind, not the strip club kind). It seems if you click on one type of video, Instagram pushes more of the same at you, so of course, I clicked on more. 

Most of the women who are into serious pole dancing dance barefoot nowadays, which is just fine by me, but many of the athletes also do routines in heels sometimes. What I have noticed is that every single one of them wears shoes with high platforms, at least 2 inches, and sometimes up to 4 inches! Out of idle curiosity, I am wondering why. I can see where high heels would add just that little bit extra to some of these impossibly difficult (to me) routines,  but why the huge platforms? Doesn't anybody dance in sort of normal, streetgoing shoes? Doesn't this just perpetuate the stereotype of pole dancing being for strip clubs? These women show amazing strength, grace, and hard work, no different than gymnastics.

I am wondering if anybody has some insight into this "uniform."

3 hours ago, maninpumps said:

 I have been told by many women my mother included , when you buy heels they are only good for about a year then they go out of style . So, never put to much money into a pair cause you may only wear them a few times .  

That's true, but only if you buy super trendy shoes. Certainly a classic pump or knee high boot will never go out of style. I can't think of any of my shoes that I anticipate not wearing over the next several years. Some I have just gotten tired of, or they've just worn out beyond repair, but nothing in my collection screams "last year!" Or "next year," for that matter!

Yes, it has been a very strange year here also. Just a few days ago, I was wearing a heavy coat to work, at least first thing in the morning. Yesterday, I need no coat at all! We look forward to your next story!

Of course I buy shoes even if I do not need them! I haven't made a recent exact count, but I'm going to guess that a fellow doesn't need 50+ pairs of shoes! I wear almost all of them, too. The few exceptions are too high for me at this time. Workin' on it.

I kind of addressed this question in my personal thread, "The High Heeled Ruminations of Melrose Plant," but did not give the details presented here. The question is, "How high a heel can you wear?" The answer is, not very, compared to some. The steepest rise I can really deal with all day long, without thinking about it, is 4 1/4". I tried a pair two days ago foolishly that had a 4 3/4" rise, and it was not good. They didn't hurt that much, but I did not walk well in them after 2 or 3 hours, due to muscular fatigue.

My favorite style of shoe is open toed mules--well over half of my 50-60 pairs are of this style. However, the question didn't ask this, so I'm going to put down my Nine West Plantera platform loafer style pumps, which largely sat on the shelf for over a year while I worked my way up to them. Today, I can wear them easily wherever I like, for as long as I like. I have two pair, in fact, one black and one tan. So here are the stats:

Style: High cut platform pump (loafer style)

Platform ht.:  1 1/4"

Heel ht.:   5 1/2"

Net rise:  4 1/4"

Shoe size:  US women 8.5-9, Euro 39-40