mlroseplant

I'm not sure that this post is really a question, but congratulations for meeting your challenge! It is not a challenge I'm interesting in taking, I can't imagine wanting to wear any type of shoe for 24 hours straight, but hey, that's just me.

I suppose it's very difficult to write an appropriate law to cover every situation, which is why to my knowledge, no U.S. state has ever written such a thing, with the exception of Alabama, where it is illegal to ride a motorcycle barefoot. I think all of these things would be covered by the vague but way less vague, "Failure to maintain control." So much depends on driver skill and attentiveness. For example, I would still be a better, safer driver than my wife if I were wearing 8 inch pole dancing shoes and she were wearing flat loafers. I'm not being mean, that's just a fact. To be fair, she would be a safer motorbike rider then me, wearing high heels, if we were to ride in Hanoi, Vietnam. That's mainly because I have trouble not thinking/driving like a Westerner in Hanoi traffic, which can get you killed (and nearly did one time).

On 7/25/2021 at 12:39 PM, Chorlini said:

But we're not skunks. Skunks have no agency or self awareness. We do. Which is why it is fun to self examine one's behavior and read about others.

The first part may be true, but it doesn't really get you any closer to answering the question of "why." The second part is definitely true, which is "why" I continue to check in on this thread from time to time.

It's been a while since I posted. I've been out of town visiting family. Also, I've really got nothing to say. Therefore, I will now say more of basically nothing. While I was visiting family, it just so happened that pictures were posted on social media. It's not the first time my heels have made it on to social media, but it is the first time that a picture of me in heels wouldn't have been buried in somebody's album of 43 photos, so it was pretty much front and center of somebody's news feed for a few days.

Also, these heels are very tame at 2 1/2 inches, and you can't really see what they are in the photos, except that they do look rather unusual for a man to be wearing. All I can say is that they are too saxy!

On 7/25/2021 at 6:13 PM, Jkrenzer said:

Totally agree. Surprisingly nobody is listening to me when I recommend Hey Si Mey's. Heels are perfectly placed, high than usual arches. Quality is nine west level, price about 40 to 50 dollars.

If you keep talking, you might convince me to try another pair. They have so many cool shoes, but as you may remember, my first experience with them was very disappointing. I'll refresh your present recollection that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the shoes, it's just that they don't fit my feet right (toe portion of the shoe was way too long for my shorter toes). I'm afraid to buy another pair for this reason.

On 7/20/2021 at 7:45 PM, Rockpup said:

Found these on clearance today, I was hoping for red, but the price was too good.

Louboutin Tanja 100.

photos wearing them soon.

Interesting. This basic style of shoe was popular in East Asia about 13-14 years ago. The style did not last very long, as the huge platforms with extremely tall stiletto heels took over, but I had never seen its likeness here in the U.S. until now. I'm not a big wedge guy, but I don't mind these at all.

I've said this before, I am quite sure, but perhaps there is part of a new audience out there to hear it the second time. I simply do not enjoy driving in heels, especially in my present vehicle. There is something about the angle of the pedals to the floor which I find awkward in heels. I don't feel it's a safety issue, I just don't like it. Oddly enough, my old pickup truck, which is a manual, has not got this problem. I don't really notice whether I'm wearing heels or not while driving this truck. Weird, huh?

On 7/16/2021 at 6:15 PM, Jkrenzer said:

Yep, my wife and I are the same size. She simply can't wear heels, too heavy 😞

She's fallen into the typical American idiom. Big is beautiful, of course that's not reality.

I'm the only heeler in my house, but hay she's fine with that. So not that I'd let that make a difference, was heeling way before her and was open about it, I continue to heel. I'm not the only married self heeler here, right Melrose.

 

My ex-wife and I were the same size, or so I thought. In heels, now that I know such things, she was actually a half size bigger. My real wife is a couple of sizes smaller, foot-wise, and is also pretty heavy. She still wears some heels for the right occasion, but has given up stilettos, as far as I can tell. So I'm almost a self heeler, but not 100%.

15 hours ago, Cali said:

Mike:  That's why I hope this trend to higher heels is taking place in your area as well.  Don't forget about our South America and Australian and New Zealand members.

As I posted elsewhere, I did see a number of heels out at the farmer's market the other night, and I have noticed it on multiple weeks. Well, they call it a farmer's market, but it's much more like a weekly street festival than it is a farmer's market. Maybe heels are making a comeback! Nah, but it's fun to say.

On 7/16/2021 at 3:08 PM, Puffer said:

Somehow, the sandals seem to blend nicely with the background pipework.   I like the graceful curves on both!

Somehow, the wood chips that fell down on that pipe 13 years ago when they bored a hole in the side of my house to install air conditioning are still there, included for free in every photo! If I were to clean up said wood chips, and maybe the cobwebs, you'd feel cheated, wouldn't you?

Sorry to be overly repetitive, but here are some more farmer's market pictures from yesterday. It was supposed to rain all day, but it didn't, instead. Turnout was impressive, my wife was going 100 miles an hour for the entire four hours. That pleases her, but at the same time exhausts her.

No mention was made of my shoes by anyone. I'm sure, as always, that people noticed, but to be quite honest, this is a big enough gathering that there are always several people who are dressed far more outlandishly than me. I did see quite a few heels this time. By quite a few, I mean probably half a dozen, including one woman wearing shorts with her 3 inch block heeled sandals.

My boring outfit: Sandals are Söfft Calvados, shorts are l.e.i., shirt is just a t-shirt, as always. Sunglasses are from Costco, and are equipped with trifocals. That is not a joke.

I guess I am kind of unexcited about the whole thing, with one possible exception. If somebody like Jimmy Choo is really getting on board with this, that could be significant. It would be interesting to know if this was a purely financial decision, or if there were aesthetic sensibilities mixed in as well. We all know what his contemporary and competitor Christian Louboutin has said in the past about the aesthetic of men in heels. Oh, and I don't mind the chrome, I only dislike the style of the boot it's on!

21 hours ago, SF said:

 

"Heel height is all 'relative.'"  Albert Einstein... 

To be fair, I have been enjoying my lower height heels this summer, chronicled somewhere up there in the feed. I have discovered that I get a different thrill from wearing my lower heeled sandals, and I'm not sure exactly how to describe it. It is certainly a different feeling from that of simple elevation of the heel.

In other news, our family actually went out to a restaurant for the first time since early 2020. What to wear, what to wear? None of what took place is noteworthy, but I did remember to snap a picture of what I did wear. Ann Taylor shorts in pink, obviously not too short and not too tight. I evidently went on a shorts buying rampage pre-pandemic, then promptly put most of them in a drawer and forgot about them. I'm trying to break them back out as circumstances allow.

I paired the shorts with Nine West "Dancecard" sandals in a sort of dusty rose color, which I thought went pretty well with the shorts. Stats on the sandals are 5 1/4" heel with 1" platform. I seem to have an awful lot of shoes that follow that formula within 1/4". Apparently I must like it. Oh, and that works out to just about 40º steepness, though I might have to recheck my measurements upon which I'm basing that calculation, because it sure does appear to be quite a bit more than 40º in the accompanying photo.

As usual, I tend to worry about what I'm wearing from the waist down more than the waist up, and yesterday was no exception. I've got on a t-shirt from Walmart, nothing fancy, and just a regular old black belt. Absolutely zero comments from the crowd at the restaurant, and while I'm sure there were some stares, I did not detect them, or possibly I just didn't care. Our waitress was cute, friendly, and efficient. We gave her a big tip. I should say my wife gave her a big tip. In a Vietnamese family, the man is never supposed to pay, that would be in bad taste. Don't ask me why, I only know that it is so.

21 hours ago, bluejay said:

Mirose,

When I wear my yellow slides , yellow heels or flats, I pair them up with black shorts, capris or caprl  leggings always in black. Then I ad a yellow polo to compliment the ensemble. You can't go wrong with a yellow and black combo.

Happy Heeling,

bluejay

My thoughts were the same, but I own only one yellow shirt, and when I pulled it out of the dresser drawer, somehow or other it was badly stained. I have no idea what happened, but it is destined to be a shop rag now. I suppose I could have worn my high-viz yellow polo, but it has my company name on it, and I didn't really want to do that. So I opted for the white shirt with subtle peach stripes instead. It goes so well with my orange work gloves! That's a joke. What is not a joke is that neither my wife nor my kid listens to me when it comes to wearing gloves. My wife pinched her finger badly setting up the tent the other evening. There is simply no need for that. We have approximately 5,000 pairs of dexterity work gloves in this house. You can grab a quarter out of your pocket while wearing them. PPE, people, PPE! My 12 year old does wear safety glasses religiously when the situation requires it, he just won't wear gloves.

4 hours ago, p1ng74 said:

And they feel so great to wear too. 3.5” feels so normal to me now, and that little extra stretch to 4” is a noticeable and nice feeling on the feet.  

Yeah, I totally get that. There is a sweet spot, and it differs from person to person, that can't be understood by those without the "high heel" gene!

Another urban farmer's market last night. Boy, these farmer's markets sure can take over a person's life. It seems that's all I talk about anymore, but it's by far my biggest exposure these days, heel-wise. I decided to up my game a little bit, and I wore some Diane von Furstenberg wedges, which might not be truly high, but they come in at 35º, with a 4 3/4" heel and 1" platform. I haven't worn them a whole lot, partially because they're yellow, or at least the dominant color is yellow. What do you wear yellow shoes with, especially when you're a guy? The other reason I haven't worn them much is because they're wedges, and we'll get to that in a moment.

I paired them with black Talbot's shorts, which are, like last week, quite a bit more on the tailored side than denim. These shorts say Talbot's Perfect Short on the inside. I disagree with that assessment. For one thing, they are too long and too loose, despite being a size 4P. Must be size inflation, I'm awfully sure I'm not a size 2. I suppose they are meant to be that way, and I suppose my wife probably thinks they look more dignified than what I am usually wont to wear. Inseam is 6", and they are fairly generously cut. I mean, for a size 4. In other words, Mom shorts. The waist, however, is indeed perfect for me. I added a white t-shirt with subtle peach colored stripes and a black belt. I got zero comments and few looks.

I hate to return to this bitch, but after spending an entire evening on display, I dislike wedges. To me they have but one advantage, and that is that you can walk on soft ground with them more easily than shoes with a separate heel. Otherwise, I don't really like the way they look, and I don't like the way they walk. I tried every TikTok girl trick that I know, and I still clomped around, at least from my own perspective, which I realize by nature is flawed.

I swore I was going to take pictures, but when you are in there in the heat of the moment, sometimes you forget about these things, so I will have to provide my file photo of the shoes.

7 hours ago, Jkrenzer said:

It's lonely but not unexpected. SF, don't take it wrong way, but you wear heels, not high heels.

Love the news lately out of. Ukraine, women marching in high heels. Not really, high is over 3 inches and really that depends on foot size. I would like to define high as any shoe with 40 or more degrees slope,  i.e. foot length independent. 

5 hours ago, Pierre1961 said:

You’re right. 40/45 degrees is the minimum to be in the high heel range. Less is just heel. 

I have no idea what the degrees of my shoes were, so I did a little math. The ones pictured above, which are an effective 3 inch heel, put me at 27º. To get 40º, I'd need an effective 4 1/8 inch heel. To get 45º, I need about 4 5/8 inches, which is really pushing it for me. I did this figuring that the distance from the ball of my foot to my heel is pretty darn near 6.5 inches.

Speaking of high heels, I think my patience has finally paid off, and I'm rather glad of it, considering the money I have spent on these silly shoes. You may recall that I bought these D & G mules some time ago. They came all the way from Russia. All the cool shoes are in Russia, it seems. I wasn't disappointed when I got them, but they were a little tight. OK, a lot tight. But, after spending over 100 bucks on acquiring them, I wasn't going to give up so easily. I put them in the shoe stretcher, very gently and gradually, and got to where I could slip them on in less than five minutes, and without soaking my feet in ice water first. When I got them to where they would fit well enough, I then realized two more problems: 1) I couldn't really walk in them, and 2) even if I could walk in them, the stupidly thin leather sole looked as though it would last about 500 meters.

I am happy to report that I have solved both problems, one by throwing money at the problem (sole protectors), and the other by simple practice. I actually took these for a spin in public for the first time yesterday, to the grocery store. Not only did I not feel particularly self conscious, I also found them to be considerably more comfortable than I expected, as I continued wearing them for some time after I returned home.

Last week at the big farmer's market, I was getting ready to unload. This particular market takes place on a weeknight from 4-8 p.m., and is on a main city street, which is closed off to regular traffic from 3:15 until it's time to pack up and go home. It's always a bit of a zoo getting in and out of there, and if you need two vehicles, as we do, it can be a bit of a problem figuring out where to put the second vehicle while you're unloading it.

It just so happened that the vendors directly adjacent to my wife were already there when we got there, but the spots across the street were completely vacant. I figured I'd just pull over there, dump everything out of the trailer, and get the extra car and trailer out of there. Wouldn't you know it, just as soon as I got the tailgate off the trailer, this guy in a pickup rolls up and slows down. I gestured to him in the way of asking if he needed me to move, I figured I was in his spot. It turns out that wasn't the case at all. I'm guess he actually was another vendor somewhere, or he shouldn't have been allowed in there, but he stopped, rolled down his window, and asked, "Are those high heels?" My first reaction was, "What a stupid question!" But I didn't say that. I paused just a beat, and said, "Actually, these are low heels for me, but as you can see, I've a lot of heavy stuff to unload. They're more practical."

He also paused a beat, raised his right hand, and I could recognize by his body language that he wanted me to high-five him. I did so, and he said, "That's awesome, man!" and drove off. I really do not know what that encounter was really all about, perhaps I shall run into the same man this week. In any case, I soon forgot about it and went about my business. I wasn't even sure if it was worth a mention here, but it's kind of a slow week, so I figured what the heck.

In case you're wondering, I was wearing the following shoes, which I consider to be my "low heels." I've shown you my super low heels for the farmer's market on the grass, these are my standard go-tos for the street farmer's market. I was wearing them with some light brown (not tan or khaki) dressier shorts. By dressier, I mean that the back pockets are concealed, chino style. They are not super tight, but they are definitely on the short side. I suppose I shall have to take a picture someday. Not today.

I’m not really sure why anybody would think it’s a good idea to march in pumps, particularly if you’re goose-stepping. Heeled or not, that’s a shoe waiting to come off. At least the North Korean female soldiers get to wear heeled boots!

Posted later—Heh, evidently this is not going to happen. Whoever it is that made this decision has gotten enough flak that the decision was reversed. 

In broader thoughts, what is the point of a military parade anyway? Tremendous waste of resources. I’m completely fascinated, don’t get me wrong, but that’s not what the military is for. We probably ought to quit that stuff. 

On 7/1/2021 at 5:02 PM, Bubba136 said:

The language sure is “ladylike!”

Haha, I never even knew that until just now. I always look at Instagram or TikTok with the sound off, because the music is so consistently awful! Evidently, this particular video is no exception.

You're a braver man than I!

On 6/28/2021 at 11:19 AM, CHRISPAP said:

Do you think one can wear hosiery with opentoe sandals? For me now, I don't like it but everyone does what they want

I am one of those people who are of the opinion that hosiery should never be worn with open toe shoes, and especially not full blown sandals, though as Ron C noted, this was done regularly years ago, and sometimes even with reinforced toe hosiery. Even as a kid, I thought this looked odd.

However.  .  . my friend and shoe buddy prefers to wear hosiery with shorts and short skirts for dressier occasions, because the skin on her legs, if you look very closely, is riddled with imperfections. You can't notice it unless you look very carefully up close. I don't really know how to describe it without closeup pictures, but I can understand why she prefers to cover the blemishes with hosiery. She has specialized hosiery for such occasions which do not encase the entire foot, and leaves the toes bare. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but I think it's a good compromise for her.

22 hours ago, Cali said:

You might have a few more than I have, but you do not too many.  I live in short and wedges in the summer.

I heard that shorts are getting shorter this year.

I can say with certainty that, even here in the relatively fashion conservative Midwest, you are starting to see guys in much shorter shorts than a few years ago. I even saw a guy last night at the farmer's market with shorts that were approaching my preferred length! To be sure, 97% of guys are still wearing long, baggier shorts here. And to be fair, most of them look rather better that way.

22 hours ago, spikesmike said:

mlroseplant : I am fairly sure  how to wear shorts , but how do you wear those horns ? They don't look much like high heels . You have to learn on what, and how to spend your money .                            mike

I could probably wear the detachable bell of my euphonium as a hat, but the smaller horns are definitely not wearable. Also, I'm not really sure what I would do with the tuba. The bell is way too big for a hat, yet too small to fit around my body. I guess I'll just play it instead.

21 hours ago, Pumped said:

I hope there are breakers in that box!

As a colleague of mine is so fond of saying, "Hey man, this ain't no hobby!" 😆😆😆

When I was looking into this, I found several premade adapters which do the same thing my rig does, but for much cheaper, such as this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Rophor-Adapter-14-50P-Household-Protection/dp/B08NXHHCKG/ref=sr_1_14?dchild=1&keywords=camper+outlet+adapter+120v&qid=1625226926&sr=8-14

However, in my professional opinion, this adapter is VERY unsafe, providing no overcurrent protection whatsoever, grossly undersized conductors for 50 amps (No. 10 instead of the required No. 6), and no GFCI protection. I don't understand how anybody could sell such a thing in good conscience. That is why I created my own rig, at no small expense!

What do you guys think? Do I have too many shorts? 🤣🤣🤣 Or maybe I have too many horns, I don't know.

Ain't nothing wrong with that! Believe it or don't, the second look used to be quite fashionable here in the Midwest U.S., only you would sure want to hide your heels, and make it look like you went out that way on purpose. Of course, that was 35 or 40 years ago. I haven't seen bare feet in public, outside of a beach or swimming pool, in forever!