mlroseplant

I think you're placing way too much importance on a pair of socks. Within this truncated view, I do not immediately think either foot is too young or too old. I totally get what you're saying about feet changing size. I've always been frustrated by the common narrative that one should buy his shoes in the afternoon, when feet are biggest. It just so happens that my feet are biggest in the morning, and that's a fact. Why this should be so, I have no idea, I only know that it is. Also, I have a list which tells me where I need to place bandaids to prevent certain shoes from eating holes in my feet. Even that sort of comes and goes to some extent. I hate to admit it, but usually my most reliable shoes are boots as far as blisters and other such injuries, and I know it's because I always wear socks with boots. If only I could love boots. . .

I guess so! Where do you find these people? I've heard of them before, but I've never actually met them. They must go over there to the Bab-dist church. 100 years ago, we Methodists were admittedly a little uptight, but today we'd be right up there with the Catholics wanting a taste of that whiskey.

I had an experience yesterday at the grocery store that would reinforce my belief that perceptions are changing, at least somewhat. I cannot perhaps do anything about your elderly American tourists, but it does seem like Gen Z is different than older generations. I know that my younger son's classmates (Class of 2027) seem to be far less concerned about what I wear than were my older son's (Class of 2017). And once again--this is becoming far too common to be a fluke--I was approached by a girl I would estimate to be about 12 (who was wearing Crocs, of course) and said, "Excuse me, sir, but I absolutely LOVE your heels!" I smiled and thanked her. At that moment I realized she was with an older woman who appeared to be her grandmother. The grandmother looked slightly uneasy about the encounter. Luckily, my grocery list was short, and I did not encounter them again.

I'm very sorry to report that I've been going the wrong way lately. That is, I wore shoes pretty much all of our Labor Day weekend which I don't even consider to be high heels. My excuse is that I spent nearly the whole holiday under the weather. I felt absolutely terrible for most of three days. Speaking of weather, it couldn't have been more pleasant the entire weekend, and I did take the opportunity to get out of bed and get a couple of snaps (and yes, I don't pretend that they're anything better than that). Shoes are a mere 8 cm (on the scooter), and effective 9 cm (on the deck). I sometimes wonder why I don't wear mid heels more often, but I usually come to my senses after a week or so.

Debbie simultaneously is and is not before my time. In other words, I remember her very well, but I was not really a participant at the time. The only man I know who can answer your question has not really been active on this site this year. And anyways, one ought to look forward and not backward.

I always suspected that you were just about half a bubble off plumb. . .

I am not sure exactly how German cinemas are set up, but in the U.S., there is always a slight downward slope from the back of the room up to the screen. I have always thought that it would seem much steeper in extreme heels.

It has been a whole year! It doesn't seem like it's been a whole year. I need to go through my collection as well, and see what I really have. It seems like I have been culling a lot lately and not buying new, which is probably a good thing.

Haha, one of my favorite musings: "Ya know, it's not always just about doing it the easy way. . . [pregnant pause] Which is a good thing, because we're sure NOT doing it the easy way!" Usually said while lifting something really heavy, and probably unnecessarily.

It was a shame to pitch the sandals after but one wearing, but like I said, evidently I had not seen fit to wear them for a year and a half after I bought them. Had it been a pair of shoes that I just couldn't live without, MAYBE I would have put some effort into trying to repair them, but I've been down this road before, and I've had a 0% success rate at making this kind of repair. The good about these sandals: The shape of the slope up to the heel was one of the best fitting shoes I've ever owned. At 4 1/4", you could definitely tell you were wearing heels, but they felt so natural. I wish all of my shoes fit like that. The bad: Due to their super strappy design, getting those puppies on and feeling right was a several minute process. It did not take a great deal of contemplation to decide to bin them.

I guess we got a little bit off the subject, and I forgot to say that those sandals are adorable! There are definitely things I've done a complete 180º on, and wedges are one of them. I always hated them. Since I was a kid, I hated them. Now, I wear them myself. I wouldn't say they're my favorites, but I don't hate them anymore. I think it has to do with the hugeness factor. Many wedges look like they have an excessive amount of material stuck to the bottoms of your feet. These are neat and trim looking.

I do not remember my ex-wife talking about any "image sessions, " and I'm 100% sure that she would have mentioned it if she'd had a bad experience like that. She used to work for an outfit called AirCal in the late 80s, which got bought out by AA, so she was usurped. I'm sure her image today would not be accepted by AA today. She is 61 years old and has decided to stop dyeing her hair, and wears minimal makeup, though she still wears low to mid heels for her job as a lawyer. Maybe AA would embrace her look, but it doesn't matter, as she left them behind some 30 years ago.

I may well have posted these before, as I have owned them for a year and a half. However, it wasn't until this week that I wore them for real. May I present my Schutz Ottavia mules, featuring a 4 1/4" wedge heel that is fairly narrow at the back, measuring a mere 7/8" wide. I chose these sandals to go along with my church outfit last week, but I vetted them the week before, to make sure I wouldn't regret my fashion decision halfway through the church service. Before I wore these very nice looking mules to a public venue, I vetted them with a 1 1/2 mile walk, which is a little longer than normal. The only problem I encountered was that my right little toe had a bad habit of sneaking outside the multiple thin straps. After several adjustments, I got that problem under control, and a few days later, I decided to make these sandals the focus for my church outfit. It turns out they were so comfortable that I kept them on for all of Sunday (was super lazy and didn't do any yardwork). Alas, I was on the phone with a old friend from university Sunday night, pacing back and forth, and I noticed something was amiss. A strap had broken. After careful examination and from past experience, there ain't no fixing that. Since it took me a year and a half from purchase date to actually wearing them, I guess I didn't love them all that much anyway. An early farewell to my new sandals.

I am late posting this, but here is last week's church outfit of the week. I wore my Schutz wedges, which is a first for me in a couple of ways. Firstly, I've never worn white sandals before in public, and secondly, although I've owned these for a couple of years, this is their maiden voyage. Unfortunately, it is also their only voyage, as a strap broke later in the day, and there ain't no repairing that. I'll post more about that misadventure elsewhere.

Fair enough assessment. I am totally biased, since I live in a small town, and people either know me personally, or know me by reputation. I am not aware of any haters. I'm sure they exist, but I don't wanna know.

I still do not understand to this day why some people think that you have to have painted toenails to wear sandals. It seems to be a common fashion "must." Like Cali says, I will never say never, but I don't really like it. I give myself a pedicure every other week, but leave my toenails (and fingernails) bare.

Not wholly surprising, especially for that age group (which is getting to be my own age group at an alarming clip). In my experience, which is admittedly limited, people tend to react better to the real thing than they do to the idea. When people actually meet me in person, I get the distinct impression that many of these chucklers and chortlers think to themselves, "OK, that's a little different, but we can go with that." Whereas the idea of a drag queen reading books to their grandchildren upsets them greatly. I know--apples and oranges--but you get the idea. Not that I am suggesting you do so, discretion being the greater part of valor, but if you were to show up to your tour group, dressed as you normally do for such a gig, except wearing 4 inch block heeled boots, I bet the reaction would be generally much less than their reaction to Charles II.

To be fair, I'm not out there walking in Hot Chicks. At this time, I cannot even imagine walking even 200 meters in something that steep. As many know, I never wear stilettos to walk, simply because they wear out too fast. When I say it takes me half a mile to get my rhythm (some days), I'm typically wearing something like this: Thicker heel, somewhere around 10 cm height difference once you subtract for the platform. The trouble is getting from there to 12 cm stilettos (or in my case, evidently 12.7 cm).

I supposed it's like any other skilled activity--you'll have days where you think, "I think I finally know what I'm doing!" And then there will be days when you think, "I feel like I've never done this before." Not every time, but many times I feel like I don't get into a rhythm until about a half mile down the road. This does seem to be a big step because like I've said for years, one can't learn how to walk by doing dishes and sweeping the floors at home. Eventually, one has to step out in the real world of less-than-perfect walking surfaces. Please do keep us updated on your progress (and/or your setbacks).

Wow! Congratulations! That's quite a haul. On the other note, we are still getting shipments from Germany, the U.K., and Oz just fine (motorcycle parts via DHL). We are paying mo' money, though. As one would.

Yes, there are! And it's not just boots, either. I think they have managed to figure out a way to make heeled footwear these days that is even uglier than those of the Saturday Night Fever era. I didn't think that was possible. I saw a woman at a restaurant just two days ago wearing Mary Janes with substantial heels, but they were very Frankenstein's Monster-like. Worth a second look, but not a third.

My ex-wife was a flight attendant for American Airlines from the late 80s to early 90s. I remember reading through her material, and at that time, female flight attendants were required to wear no less than 1" heels in the airport and while seating passengers. There was a maximum, too, and I think it was 3-something inches? Can't remember. During the flight, the "allowable" heel heights were 0-1.5 inches. My ex-wife simply wore block heeled Ferragamo pumps, for which she paid a princely sum, but wore for years, with heels of 1.5 inches, and never had to switch shoes. It would seem, from recent experience, that all Asian based airlines still require their female flight attendants to wear heels except during the actual flying part of their jobs. If it's not required, they just all do it, without exception. To be fair, I've never ever seen a flight attendant in Asia with actual high heels. Their standard issue appears to be sub-3 inch. I know that for many people, that's a burden.

That's an interesting chart, and I'm surprised I haven't run across it before. Pretty much what I thought--I have to have a full 5 inch heel (127 mm) in order to have any hope of ever navigating So Kates. I'm not saying it could never happen, but I'd have to actually purchase decent heels of that height. I don't currently own anything that high that's not very poor quality.

Were they, in fact, fancy?

I really tried to get the angle of the photograph to be neutral, but it's very difficult without taking two separate photographs. Anyway, I like them both, but don't wear either very often. Suede and Iowa often don't mix very well. We've finally had an entire week without rain (and here we were talking about drought last year). Speaking of steepness and appearance, I can remember back in the early days of HHP, somebody told a woman not to be impressed when some dude said he could walk in 5 inch like they were carpet slippers. Said dude also took about a size 15, and his 5 inch were not really all that steep. I take and refer to the actual heel measurements as they are on my shoes, which are either 8.5 or 9 (39/40, something like that). You mentioned that your 12cm are the right proportion to your size. I am curious as to what the actual heel height is on your 12 cm?