mlroseplant

Cut him a little bit of slack, for he was working under slightly demanding conditions. Also, I do not take small steps for a man with 28 inch inseams.

The existing rod is not very big. Eyeballing it, it appears to be about 4 mm. I agree with you, it could be fixed. Technically, you are correct. However, my general feeling is that it would be very much like fixing my son's 1972 Suzuki T350, which has been resurrected from the dead half a dozen times. I don't like riding that thing to Des Moines, much less anywhere substantial. You can't trust the thing not to break down at any moment. How would these shoes be any different? Supposing the broken heel were fixed, and fixed well. What is to say the other heel isn't going to break next month? Or what if a shank breaks? I don't want to have the same feeling every time I wear those shoes that I do every time we ride that damned motorbike. Moving forward, right after I broke the heel, I put together this ensemble for church, which included my Steve Madden Daisie pumps in tan patent.

There is an additional issue, as Krenzer alluded to, and that is the fact that there is an existing metal rod in the heel that does not extend all the way up the heel. I have not done a full forensic analysis, but it appears that the heel snapped off at about the end of this rod. Even if my measuring and drilling were perfect, there is the issue of how to get rid of that existing rod. You certainly couldn't drill it out, and I don't have the means to press it out, the plastic is 11 years old, has been exposed to extreme heat and cold cycles, &c., &c. I'm thinking this is the end of the road. I have come to the conclusion that there are no high heels which will last forever, unlike Shyheels' hiking boots. These fell just shy of 200 miles. I figured they would fail eventually, but I figured it would be at the 250 or 300 mile mark. In second place is a pair of True Religion mules, which currently sits at 170 miles. In distant third place is a pair of BCBG mules which only made it to 111 miles, and its replacement has already shown signs of premature failure at less than 70 miles. My shoes failures tend to fall into one of two categories: Shank failure or what I will call aesthetic failure. I've had several shank failures over the years. Worst case scenario, it involves a limp home similar to what I experienced Sunday. Aesthetic failure just means that the shoes have gotten so ratty looking from hard use that they are not presentable anymore. The amazing thing about the Nine West oxfords is that they actually still looked good after 11 years and nearly 200 miles. Oh well. . .

I had the weirdest shoe failure I've ever experienced in my life yesterday. As you can see below, my heel snapped clean in half while out for my Sunday morning constitutional. There was no precipitating event, no stumble, no trip, no step in a hole, it just broke suddenly. Naturally, it broke when I was every bit of a mile away from home. I came this close to calling my wife, but I chose to tiptoe all the way back home. I'm sure I looked a bit strange, as I was unable to keep a completely natural gait. Of course, the sun had risen by that time, so I was quite easy to spot from a distance. However, the broken heel only slowed me down by three minute for the last mile home. I was very surprised. It felt like it was taking forever to make it home. The GPS said otherwise. As many of you might recall, these are my most durable shoes, and I just spent 50 bucks getting them reheeled and resoled. I believe I said it out loud, which probably jinxed it, "You watch. Now that I've had these things refurbished, they will break on me somehow." They made it 196.1 miles in total, 195 of which were quite wonderful. I shall miss them.

I actually did the "chick" thing yesterday, and wore sandals with a heavy coat to the grocery store yesterday. Evidently, I am not the only one who has warm feet. I am feeling much better the last couple of days. I might actually survive my outside assignment at work in the coming week.

Speaking of boots, I actually got some new ones yesterday, the details of which are listed in the "New Boots" thread. Of course, now that I have shearling lined boots, no snow is predicted at all for the next ten days.

Surprise! It's me, posting in the Boots thread, which hardly ever happens. Yesterday, I received a new pair of knee high boots, bringing my total to four. Plus one pair of ankle boots which I haven't worn in a very long time. My reason for purchasing the boots, for which I paid 60 USD on Poshmark (about twice what I would normally be open to for shoes), was that even though we had all of this snow around here recently, I have yet to break out my actual snow boots. I haven't needed to. I've been living in my Easy Spirit knee highs for the past three weeks, and they're just fine as snow boots, except for one thing: They are not warm, having zero insulation. Therefore, when I saw these vintage Cobbies Boots come up in my feed with the faux shearling lining, I decided that I probably had to have those. Exactly how vintage they really are is not clear to me. They were sold as New Without Tags, and they obviously have never been worn outside, even for 20 steps. I don't know exactly when Cobbies became defunct, but they don't look like they're from the 90s (when parent company U.S. Shoe was purchased in a hostile takeover), they don't look like they're from the 80s, they look like they might actually be from the late 70s. They do not list the country of manufacture anywhere that I can find. For size 9 boots, they are a little tight, but not overly so. The other thing that makes me think these might actually be that old is the fact that these are the only knee high boots I've ever had that are actually tight around my ankles and tight around my calves all the way up. I could wear leggings with these no problem, and they wouldn't look stupid. People used to be a lot skinnier back then, on average. The stats: Heel height is 2 3/8 inches, or basically flat, haha. These are supposed to be my snow boots, after all. Heel width is about 1 1/2 inches, and the heels themselves are the fake stacked leather look, so contrasting color to the rest of the black boots, which are real leather that looks and feels to be fairly high quality. I haven't worn them off of my property yet, so I have not discovered if there are any unpleasant surprises to be had. I'm sure I will let you know if there are.

I remember that picture! I too, was quite impressed. Of course, this was before I became an actual wearer, and I was living my high heel life vicariously through my ex-wife, and Jenny's website. I would say that I was wasting my time wishing things were different, but I can't go back. Besides, it just wasn't my time yet.

I think I'm back! We'll see how I feel by next Monday, but the sinus pain I've endured for the last three weeks appears to be gone. I had a committee meeting at the church last night, and I got a message from the chair during the day, asking if I'd mind climbing on a ladder in order to take the Christmas trees that are (were) in the sanctuary down, as part of our activities. As a result, I hemmed and hawed around, and finally decided to wear flat boots to the meeting. Not completely flat, but essentially flat. I mentioned this when it ended up that I didn't have to step one foot on a ladder. I don't think that fellow appreciated how grumpy I was having worn flats when it wasn't necessary.

Congratulations @AlexC94. I can't walk in such shoes. My limit is about 4 1/2". I have several that are higher, but I just haven't gotten around to spending the time and effort to get them to the place where I would be willing to be seen. Even the 4 1/2s I won't wear unless I'm in really good practice. Which has not been this month, due to a combination of illness and bad weather. Speaking of 6 inch, that's getting up to the height where foot size has an absolutely huge impact on foot angle. In my case, I think it's not physically possible to have a heel higher than 6 inches without some sort of a cheat. Certainly going to a 7 inch heel would require a larger foot than mine. I have always been a little bit curious about some of the Pleaser/Devious shoes, particularly the oxfords. They are advertised as having 6 inch heels, but just looking at them, I'm saying "no way." Not in my size, anyway. I almost want to buy a pair just to put a tape measure to it.

If it's unisex looking, I don't care whether it's labeled for men or for women, or neither. I can tell you that I haven't bought men's shoes for a decade, simply because I have a short and narrow foot. Therefore, the exact same style works better for me in USW 9B than it does in USM 7D. Technically, I'm a B-and-a-half width. I did dig out the Eastland loafer-esque sort of casual shoes that I wore to Vietnam the last time. With a little TLC, they should be quite adequate for the job. They are technically "women's" shoes, but my wife has never mentioned anything about them, so they must pass well. On the other hand, I bought these Nike "cheer" shoes on a whim, simply because I didn't have any decent looking sports shoes, and I thought these were kind of edgy in my own way. My wife thinks they're absolutely great! I don't think she has the foggiest clue as to what they're actually for. In case anybody is interested, the cheerleader shoes look like they have a split sole with no shank--the idea of which kind of intrigued me when I bought them. However, this is a mere aesthetic feature--the sole is stiff all the way down the foot.

It's not that I don't have or can't get shoes, I just don't want to bother with something I'll wear for 2 weeks, and then never again. Perhaps I need to dig out what I wore 5 years ago to see if they're at all serviceable and somewhat attractive.

I actually wore my high heeled boots to the grocery store yesterday, knowing full well the potential to wind up on my backside once I hit the slick tile floor. Didn't happen. However, wow, am I out of practice. I felt like I should have warmed up or something before I headed out. I keep saying that I'm going to work to improve my ankle flexibility, but I never do. As a complete aside, I wonder what shoes I will end up wearing to Vietnam? I really don't have any these days that aren't completely beat up.

I think I've set a new record. I haven't worn heels for a week and a half. Other than my trips to Vietnam (where I am not allowed to wear heels), I don't think I've gone that long in a decade. Between this lousy weather and lingering illness, I haven't felt like it.

It is a particularly bad time right now in my area to judge what people are or are not wearing fashion wise, because it all tends to be functional right now--too much snow! I myself have not worn high heels for more than a week. In terms of any elevated footwear, they're all block heels, the only difference being whether the woman chooses to wear 1" heels, 3" heels, or somewhere in between. I haven't seen too much variation. Of note is that skinny jeans are pretty much out now (though not completely), so boots have gone back underneath pant legs. Before the snow storm, shoes/boots in general have gotten clunkier. But we knew this.

Sure, there is a measure of natural mechanical ability factored in there, but most of it has to do with opportunities, means, and desires. I didn't really have either of the first two, and not a whole lot of the third, until much later in life. Most of the reason why you can get away with doing such rough-shod, cowboy work on these old little engines is because they are very low-performance, low efficiency affairs. They were not built when new to particularly tight specifications. They will run ok for a long time with a big gouge in the cylinder wall. Try that with a modern automobile! Ha!

I don't really have any experience with older Tecumsehs, it's the newer ones (made a decade or less before bankruptcy) that worry me. I run synthetic oil, and it gets changed once a year, whether it needs it or not. We are not in a super heavy snow belt. This is somewhat unusual. I'll bet that machine gets 10 hours a year, at most. I don't know that it will outlive me, but it might come close. I take the opposite approach to off season storage--I start adding fuel stabilizer to my 5 gallon gas can toward the end of the season, and fill everything full. If I get around to it, I will try to exercise dormant machines several times during the off season. And if that doesn't work, I got a 14 year old kid who is willing to take that stuff apart at the drop of a hat, and fix it. I haven't had one not start in more than a decade. Also, I never run ethanol in my small engines. I still have that option around here. My furnace inlet/exhaust is not as low as you think it is. We just have that much snow! 😆

I guess I can always look forward to the fact that I'm leaving for Vietnam three weeks from today, where I see temps are considerably warmer than the awfully-close-to-30 below that it is right now. That's -20 F. It might make it to -30 still. Sunrise is not for another hour and a half. It looks like we're supposed to come out of this in about a week, and be back to "normal" January temperatures, which is to say approaching 0º for a high, and about -12º for a low. Let's hope so. I'm getting pretty behind on my walking quota.

I think you fundamentally misunderstand what this site is all about. It's not that your photos are technically inappropriate in any sort of legal sense, but the boundaries you are pushing are irrelevant to us. We are trying to change society one person at a time. You are playing dress-up in front of the mirror. There's nothing wrong with that, but it doesn't really fit well with this site. We're simply not pushing "raciness" in any way. We are about practical advice, general fashion advice, and stories about interacting with the public as guys in heels, and hopefully gaining some acceptance as such. I hope I don't come off as a jackass, I'm just trying to put the issue in perspective, calmly. I can't say that I speak for everybody here, but I know I speak for quite a few.

"Stuff" has gotten real here. I have not left the house for about 36 hours. Let me rephrase that. I have not gotten in the car for 36 hours. I certainly have been outside for a substantial amount of time, clearing snow. I will do so again today, not because it has snowed more, but because the winds have kicked up, and the snow has drifted substantially over what I cleared yesterday. Before I get off the subject, @Jkrenzer, I now know what you mean about snowpack, and it makes sense. It also seems like one of those things that I will feel compelled to study in more detail, even though I know it won't really affect my footwear choices in any given situation all that much. I like my block heeled boots mainly because the shafts fit my calves better, and because they are less "cheap" looking, not necessarily because they are block heeled. Speaking of block heels, I spent most of the day in these knee high low heeled boots from Easy Spirit. I did not buy these for myself, but they have turned out to be handy in several situations, one of which was this deep snow. I wore them because I realized that I had left my real snow boots in my car, which was then buried. By the time I got the car unburied, I realized that the Easy Spirit boots are superior to the purpose made snow boots in every way except warmth, so I kept them on. Being as I was only outside for less than an hour at a time, and I was doing physical labor, warmth was not an issue. Anyway, I am glad that my dad bought a bigger snow blower than he thought he needed some 15 years ago, which is now mine. It's not too big. I should be thankful that I have the equipment to dispatch the job easily. I may grumble about it, but this machine makes pretty quick work of what would be an incredibly daunting task if one had to do it by hand. The story is that my dad went down to our local hardware store to buy a snow blower, and they had run out of the model that he really wanted, so he wound up buying the next model up, because they had one right there that he could take home. That was serendipitous, because the model he really wanted would have turned out to be unsatisfactory in the years to come. Despite being equipped with the notoriously troublesome Tecumseh engine, I've kept on top of it over the years, and it hasn't caused me a bit of trouble. Thankfully, I don't put a lot of hours on it in a year. For the third photograph, this is what I had to deal with last night. Snow drifting over my intake pipe for my furnace. This causes it to quit working. I had to go out twice and dig it out last night. I must have accidentally created some kind of fortress, because the furnace is still working fine this morning as I write this. I was mentally prepared to put on my coat and boots to go out there and shovel it out, but I didn't have to. I did put that photo up on social media as a PSA to all my local friends to not panic if the furnace quits working suddenly. I got a message from a dear friend who lives in Buffalo, NY, saying "You guys have more snow than we do right now!" Edit: Pictures are in reverse order somehow. You'll figure it out.

It is definitely the wrong season for these, but I just bought these vintage Bakers calfhair mules. I had been eyeing them for a while simply because they fit in with my favorite category of shoes to collect and wear, wooden heeled sandals. It was really the calfhair thing that kept me from buying them before, I was not sure how this was going to look in person. Would it be too garish to actually wear? Would it be somewhat trashed? That, and the fact that they are clearly marked not only size 9, but also size 40, which is usually too big for me in a sandal. Then, I got an offer from the seller for 16 USD, so I thought "why not?" As it turns out, I don't think either of my fears was warranted, although it will be some time before we can put that to a real world test, but they are in nice shape and are not terribly large for a 40. They will need to be reheeled soon, and I'll probably have to put in one of those ball of foot pads to take up some room at some point. But you never know that for sure until you've walked a mile in them, and, with well over a foot of snow on the ground at the moment. . . Obviously, they are a Bakers product, but exactly how vintage they are is unknown to me. They do say "Made in Italy" on them, which may or may not date them to be at least two decades old, but in any case, it's obvious that they've been worn, and it looks to be quite a bit. In my brief try-on, they definitely have the potential to be comfortable, all-day shoes. With an effective heel height of 4" (4 1/2" heel, 1/2" platform), they are no doubt challenging for most people nowadays, but not really for me, and obviously not for somebody in that past, due to the amount of wear on the rubber soles. They are definitely not made of actual wood. On close examination, both visually and aurally, the bottom appears to be a single molded plastic unit of some sort, but it's a good fake--they sure look like wood, even at only a short distance away. Another feature, chronicled elsewhere, is the fact that they are extremely narrow for wedges. It is impossible to tell until I've walked across my first Walmart parking lot, but it appears that the narrowness of the heel does not make it unstable in the least. My only worry is that, being molded plastic, and vintage molded plastic to boot, when exposed to the real world and real walking, the unit bottom will split in half transversely across the foot as so many of these doggoned things do. Why I should even be thinking about that at this time is beyond me. I need to be more positive.

I have managed to get hold of what might be legitimately considered a "stiletto" wedge. Which, despite being a contradictory terms, sounds nicer than "meat cleaver" wedge. I will probably continue with the meat cleaver terminology, as it makes me chuckle, and that's important. I bought these supposedly vintage Bakers mules for a very reasonable price, and as it turns out, they beat the above contestants for thinness of the wedge by a noticeable amount. The thinnest part of the wedge narrows to a mere 3/8", or <10 mm, which is indeed true stiletto territory. Even the heel cap itself widens to only 7/16", which is stiletto gray area. See a comparison between the new narrow Bakers and the Bruno Magli wedges I posted before. It is a little bit strange to be writing this in "Shoe Hates," but that's where the discussion started, and I don't think it merits a whole nuther thread.

I have found very little difference between the two as far as traction/walkability goes. But that depends greatly upon what we are talking about. We obviously don't get as much snow as upstate New York, but I cannot imagine a situation where the type of heel makes any difference walking in deep, soft snow, such as the kind I am going to have to face momentarily--it all just sucks, and takes a lot of effort. As far as hard packed snow, I am wondering why you would want to penetrate its surface, and particularly only with the heel. In such a situation, I would think the forefoot would not sink equally to the heel, much the same as walking on soft earth. I'd prefer to not sink at all if I can get away with it, even if the coefficient of friction on the surface is quite low. I can deal with that, within reason. In any case, I won't be wearing any of that stuff when I go to clear out a portion of my driveway so my wife can go to work. It will be regular old flat snow boots. My job got called today, so I don't have to worry about much.

I am now back to work, though I am not 100% yet. Whatever this is, and it's not Covid, it's kind of long lasting. Iowa just got dumped on with snow, so that has changed the equation a bit. I pretty much have to wear boots if I want to go anywhere, and will for a while. And it's supposed to snow more in the next several days. I'm down to basically two heeled choices--BCBGeneration stiletto heeled boots, and Vince Camuto block heels, both black, both knee high, and both effectively 4 inches of heel. I prefer the block heels because the boots themselves look higher quality, and the shafts fit my legs somewhat better. I have a couple other pairs of boots, but they are unsuitable for heavier snow either because of shaft height or material. Very bitter temperatures are next on the docket!

There really doesn't seem to be much going on here, and I don't have much going on either, except that I'm ill with what I think is my annual head cold, which will probably turn into my chest cold before it's all said and done. At least Christmas is done with, and travel to Vietnam is not for another month. I did tabulate my high heel walking distance for 2023, and I came out with 312.7 miles, which breaks the old record by 2.6. I started off 2024 really strong, having over 4 miles by the 2nd of January, but then I got sick. I'm feeling a bit better today, and may try to get out for a short jaunt, but I ain't doing no 3 miler this morning. Furthermore, once I heal, the weather is predicted to turn cold. By cold, I mean -10º F, or what, -24º C, something like that. Frigid, in other words. Up to now, we've had warmer than normal temperatures. Nothing like easing into it, eh? I do not know if I will have the fortitude to walk in those temperatures. It totally depends upon the wind. Maybe the activity will pick up again later, once people have gotten back into their routines after the holidays.