mlroseplant

Welcome to Squirrel's thread, where the topic can go all wonky, and nobody cares. I say Squirrel's thread because I just realized that no-one has called me "Melrose" in at least 15 years, yet the name persists on the internet. However, the name "Squirrel" is quite alive and well, and I seem to be unable to escape it. I even went to an entirely different job with an entirely different company, and I still didn't escape it. Oh well, it's not a horrible nickname, and it is perhaps somewhat descriptive.

At any rate, I got a couple of things. Number One, I had my MRI on Friday. I don't know anything yet, of course, so I'm not totally sure why I'm bothering to tell. I still can't move my foot correctly, but perhaps it's a little better than a few days ago. It's hard to say. Number Two, I wore some actual high heels for the first time in a while. By actual high heels, I mean those with more than a 4 inch difference between heel and toe. Man, am I out of practice with those things. I have really let myself go. Hopefully, I did not look like too much of an idiot walking in them. It's not so much the first 50 steps that are hard, it's the last 50. At this rate, I'm never going to be able to make that high heel walking video I had planned, because I will be unable to actually do what I'm telling people to do. Don't let this happen to you! Like the liquor ad says, just keep on walkin'.

Well guys, it's been a rough couple of weeks. I have developed a condition called, quite descriptively, "drop foot." I have lost some control over my right foot, and am unable to walk normally. This happened suddenly. I woke up one morning, and was like that. The doctor seems to think it's got something to do with a pinched nerve in my lower back, so I'm supposed to get an MRI tomorrow morning. The condition has gotten incrementally better over the past couple of weeks, but still persists. With my luck, I'll come out of it completely by tomorrow morning, and the MRI won't show a thing wrong with me.

Of specific interest to this group is that wearing heels allows me to walk completely normally, at least from my perspective. I suppose it make total logical sense from a physics perspective. Assuming a level floor is 0º, I am unable to lift my right foot off the floor much more than a couple of degrees, with the heel still touching. I am able to push down normally, and can return my foot to 0º pretty easily. Preload the angle of my foot by -25 or -30º, and voilà, I can walk just fine! I was unable to convince the doctor that this was a good solution to the problem. As of this date, I can go as low as a 2" heel to correct the problem. Last week, I needed more like 2 1/2 or 2 3/4" before I could walk completely normally. It IS getting better, but very slowly.

On 9/3/2021 at 1:41 AM, Isolathor said:

But if put into service it wouldn´t be a backup anymore ... 😉

At this point, it's time to start looking for the backup to the backup! It would still be interesting to know exactly what happened, but I suppose we'll never know. If it happens again with the second pair, then we'll be on to something. I once had a pair of sandals I liked so much that I purchased three different pairs, and all three failed in the same way in surprisingly short order, usually right after I had spent money on them at the cobbler. I see a pair for sale from time to time, but thus far I've managed to avoid a fourth mistake.

12 hours ago, Chorlini said:

Which confirms what I've said before. Women are okay with men wearing heels. Just not their men.

It's not a generational thing. I suspect its a gay thing. When people think of men in heels they think gay, not straight. So when women say that they have nothing against men in heels they mean gay men in heels. After all, it only takes 1 flaming gay man in heels to cement that stereotype in people's minds for another decade. And no disrespect to our gay brothers, cause they are our brothers, but when it comes to the public image of men wearing heels they are our worst enemy. Gay men in heels ain't an issue to women, so that's perfectly acceptable to them. Straight men in heels, probably no problem too, but for their own men, NIMBY. After all, what would her friends and family say.

The only ones currently violent against what isn't their norm and who are not in Afghanistan is the woke left. I didn't see religious people rioting and burning down inner cities last year. I don't see religious people cancelling people online. I don't see religious people forcing you to salute the Cross or Jesus Christ statutes, while you almost gotta salute the rainbow flag, or else...... The time of the religious right forcing people to do anything was in the 1980's, with a tiny swan song under the Bush Jr. years. Their power is over. The world has moved on. We have teachers with Antifa flags and Mao portraits teaching kids to become activists nowadays.

Its kinda metaphorically like racism. Many people who get discriminated say that while the people on the right tend to be more open about their racism, they despise the ones on the left more for their hidden racism and the racism of low expectations. Similarly, traditional people will look at us frowning thinking 'look at that weirdo'. Whereas the supposedly open minded people will cheer you on as stunning and brave, but ask them out on a date and they'll go 'no, you're not what I'm looking for. NIMBY!'

Um.  .  . have you seen what's happening in Texas lately? Outside of the subject of heels, about 99% of your post is just simply a rant. We're not supposed to be talking about that shit on this forum anyway. Give it a rest.

8 hours ago, 5150PLB1 said:

Back then it was the ladies who hid their legs under long dresses, and admired the men's legs in their tights. 

Indeed, the first U.S. President to wear long pants was John Quincy Adams, fully a quarter of the way into the nineteenth century. What the hell happened? I have no bones about wearing fairly short shorts, even with heels, but I am certainly not wearing anything other than long pants in a dressier, more formal setting.

This was a new one on me. I've broken a lot of shoes in my time, but never like that! Krenzer's explanation makes sense, but I wonder how it could have managed to tear so cleanly? I would think the tear would have been much uglier looking. Also, I wonder if the damage at the bottom of the heel occurred at the same time. I'm guessing probably not, that's something pretty normal that happens to stilettos if you actually wear them.

I do not think it would be wise to attempt a repair with a wooden dowel, that would just snap in half again in short order, and even so, it has broken already where the original steel tube or rod ended anyhow. To remedy that would require a bit of engineering. You can fix anything if you're willing to throw enough time and money at it, it now becomes a question of whether it's worth it. I really don't see how it will ever look right without replacing the entire heel, if you can find one to match.

13 hours ago, Chorlini said:

I have that experience too. 4" to 5.5" is no big thing to me. If anything 4" is too low for me. Far too comfy. I'm a size US 12 to 13 so I reckon its easier for bigger feet to take higher heel heights. Which gives me renewed respect for small women in very high single soled heels.

Back when Jeff B was around, I used to give him a little bit of a hard time about his 4 inch heels, because in his size, they appeared to be almost kitten heels in pictures. My shoe buddy, by comparison, wears a size 36, and for her a 4 inch heel is substantial. The side by side comparison is almost comical in its difference. For me, being right about in the middle of these two ranges, 4 inch heels are high enough that I definitely know I'm wearing heels, but low enough to wear all day in the real world without any ill effects.

I guess I must have been feeling brave last week. Brave and thin. Somehow or other, five years after I bought them, I am finally able to fit into these little black shorts that have been sitting in my dresser drawer for all that time. At any rate, I wore this outfit to the Big Farmer's Market last week, which did not seem to be a big deal at the time, but in the harsh light of Sunday morning, with the bright sky messing up the exposure of my photograph, I suddenly felt kind of radical. This is what you get when you read too many fashion articles that tell you that your fashion choices are basically trashy looking.

I will say this, however. On that particular evening, I got not one, not two, but THREE compliments on my shoes. All in one night. One of the compliments was a flyby, but two of them were a stop-and-talk-about-it type affair. In one case, I wound up giving a brand and model name, and recommendations on how to go about finding these things, which I am sure are not made anymore. So I guess I must have done SOMETHING right. I will note that all of the compliments were about my shoes, and not about the rest of my outfit. This may mean something, or it may not.

Particulars about the shoes are: Söfft Calvados, they are sort of a pewter color, I guess, if it's not obvious from the pictures, and this is my third pair of this particular model. I have these in black and nude/beige. 3 5/8" heel, 5/8" platform. I can get away with wearing these at the "big" farmer's market, because it's on a city street. I would not attempt these at the other farmer's market we go to, which is on grass. I have my other specialized shoes for that, featured elsewhere. Shorts and t-shirt are from Walmart, nothing special. In case anybody is interested. I am also really bad at posing for pictures.

8 hours ago, SF said:

Mlroseplant.....  That's a cute pic of you and your wife.

PS is that an anklet on your right ankle?  I have an anklet too, wear it constantly, love it.  The wife also has several anklets, they look classy.  sf

 

Thank you for your kind comment. However, it may be that you have the two of us mixed up. My wife is the one with the anklet. She has worn one since long before I met her. It is a heavy, 18k gold affair, and I think the only time it’s ever come off is when she was in the hospital 12+ years ago when our son was born. 

What I can’t figure out is how we are the same size now, at least nominally. As you can see, our feet are quite different in structure. I have actually written a standup comedy routine, part of which addresses that very subject. IF I ever get the chance to actually do it. I had it ready a year and a half ago, but then Covid happened. 

I purchased another pair of Söfft low wedges, this time in a sort of coral/salmon color. It was unclear from the picture on Poshmark exactly what I was going to get, but I was wanting to expand my color palette. They were such a lovely hue in person, so what did I wind up doing? I gave them to my wife, who desperately needed a pair like this. This also afforded us the opportunity to wear matching shoes for the first time ever. Unfortunately, nobody noticed until I pointed it out to them.

I have never taken a tumble due to uneven surfaces, but I've eaten it due to a low coefficient of friction, and right in front of people, no less. The plastic heel tips that are OEM equipment on many shoes can be treacherous on polished flooring! Once replaced with hard rubber, no problem, unless snow and ice are involved.

On 8/13/2021 at 2:00 PM, Shyheels said:

It’s the New Zealand accent I find tough to listen to. The Land of the Murdered Vowel

My 12 year old and I follow this brass music guy on Youtube who is from NZ. We are always laughing about controlling one's "eeah flow" (airflow), and the review of a horn that is in the key of "eef." (F). He made one video in a Southern American accent, which was actually pretty accurate. It was, of course, supposed to be humorous, and it was largely successful, but not nearly as funny as all the comments saying, "It's so weird to hear Trent with a normal accent."

I guess it is pretty well known that I am not a big fan of hosiery, and certainly never with any type of open toed shoe. However, I do wear trouser socks with my closed toe shoes, either pumps of oxfords, when dressing more formally. Modern fashion notwithstanding, there is something jarring about having bare ankles sticking out the bottom of your pants when you're wearing a jacket and a tie.

Hmmmm. I've met probably half a dozen people who at least claimed to be from Brighton, and they all sounded pretty much like these two girls. But I've never been there, so obviously I can't say for sure. I asked another fellow I used to know who also claimed being from Brighton, to describe his accent. He said something to the effect of oh, I suppose it's a Southern English educated man's accent. Nothing really remarkable about it.

There was, however, something really remarkable about his ability to play the piano. He was one of those people you could plop a piece of sheet music down in front of him, no matter how ridiculously difficult, and he could play the thing on sight. I have known only one other pianist in my life who has that ability to that degree, and she is not from Brighton.

On 8/15/2021 at 1:05 AM, Histiletto said:

WOW! These last several comments strayed into oblivion, losing the focus of what draws us to heels.

Eh, that's all right. Sometimes the best route to an endpoint is a circuitous one. Especially since it's doubtful we will ever reach an endpoint with this particular subject.

The first time I met my wife in person in Vietnam, we did all the fun, tourist-y stuff, and in our travels we met these two girls from Brighton. If they had been Americans, I would describe them as hippie chicks, but that's beside the point. They had, to my ear, the most smo0th and beautiful way of speaking the English language that I think I've ever heard in my life, and I told my wife that. She disagreed with me strongly about that, because she couldn't understand a damn word they were saying.

I have, over the years, developed a style of speaking where I'll use poor grammar on purpose, either for emphasis or comic effect. For example, after seeing a photograph on social media the other day, I sent my shoe buddy a message which read, "I see you have got yourself some a them TikTok girl shoes." In reference to the block heeled, Lucite sandals which one often sees on fashionable Asian women these days.

It does seem strange that no other animal except for us has developed footwear anywhere in the world from the poles to the equator, but upon further thought, I guess you don't see all that many polar bears or penguins in Zimbabwe.

6 hours ago, Cali said:

This explains all those videos of people launching Bottle Rockets from their behinds.

There’s more than one? The only reason I know about the one is because I have a fairly humorous continuing education instructor (you get to know these people after 25 years in the trade) who has presented said video as an example of risk assessment, or lack thereof. As an industrial electrician, I take risk assessment very seriously. 

There is some chick on Instagram who does heels quite a bit underwater. Kristina somebody or other. I don't have time to look it up right this minute.

In areas outside the water, a woman friend admitted to me a couple of weeks ago that she had used one of her high heels as a hammer while rearranging some pictures on the wall. She even sent me a picture of the shoe she had used.

4 hours ago, Histiletto said:

I have various pairs of Pleaser Domina Pumps that were advertised as being 6 inch high heels that actually measured at 5.5 inches when I checked, because they seemed easier to walk in than some of my actual 6 inch heels.

That explains it. I've always thought that the 6 inch Pleasers looked a little low. I just figured they were going off the larger sizes. A true 6 inch heel in my size (9 U.S.W.) would be quite extreme.

On 8/2/2021 at 8:13 AM, Chorlini said:

Humans are not born wearing high heels. It's learned behavior. It's humans not being humans. Which then makes it more interesting why we do what we do.

8 hours ago, Histiletto said:

Yes, wearing high heels and the other items of apparel we prefer are the very essence of being human in presenting the person we each are,

Hmmmm. We seem to have a contradiction. How to resolve it? On the one hand, we are doing something which is unnatural, so therefore against our human nature. On the other hand, the fact that we wear shoes at all is probably unnatural. Therefore, is it human to do unnatural things, some of them practical, some of them not?

Yet another week of farmer's markets. Last night was different, however, because I actually helped run the stand. I had offered to help before, but my wife seemed reluctant, at one time sort of shooing me away and telling me to wait elsewhere. My son has intimated in the past that she thinks I will scare off customers.

Last night, I just butted in and started taking money and prepping condiments. Soon, my son joined in and started taking orders. Evidently, I did not scare anybody off, because it was a record night for revenue, beating the old record by 14%. To be sure, I was dressed conservatively compared to many times, but my shorts were still too short* and my heels, while only 2" wedges, were obviously a little "off" as well. Still, as they say, "money talks." Hopefully this will bring us closer together as a family. It sure hasn't been that way lately until about 12 hours ago.

*It is true that I have seen more and more shorter shorts on men lately, but they seem to be athletic type shorts and not dressier shorts or denim cutoffs as I wear.

This thread appears to be headed in that direction of doom. Before it gets noticed and shut down, let me share my rule to remain PC: Don't be a jackwagon. It's as simple as that. You don't necessarily have to be meek and mild and let people walk all over you. You can have strong opinions, just don't be a jackwagon about your opinions.

I rather like that color, especially in patent leather. I own a couple of pairs in that color, though it's been rather recent, as I didn't have the confidence to wear it before. I'm trying to branch out from  your basic blacks and browns. However, I do have a bit of a problem with the name, as it's not descriptive at all, it means absolutely nothing.  I suppose somebody came up with that name because it sounds sexier than "beige."