mlroseplant

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.

We have already introduced ourselves in other threads, but I did want to comment on your statement, "I believe that at first, I will have many stories to share. . . however. . ." I think we have all experienced this to some degree or other, but what tends to happen is that one day a fellow wakes up and realizes that every post has become some version of, "Welp, I went grocery shopping today in my heels, and nothing happened." I suppose that this is one reason why the conversation tends to wander a bit off subject at times. At any rate, I do hope you enjoy your time here.

I get to do New Year twice this year! I will be traveling to Vietnam for the first time in five years to celebrate the Lunar New Year with my family. Chúc mừng năm mới!

I totally get the easy on and off thing--perhaps that is part of the reason why I am so obsessed with mules. Regular sandals, particularly those with thin straps, can be very fiddly things indeed, especially for an old man like me. Fingers! Come on fingers! Work with me here! The photo situation has not changed much. You are still limited to half a meg per post. I know that people have mentioned this on a number of occasions, but what I do is email photos to myself. On my particular phone, it automatically prompts you as to how big a file you want to send. Whatever software it uses to do this doesn't really affect the quality for viewing a normal sized photo on a computer screen. Perhaps you have something similar on your phone. And just to be clear, I really prefer to keep my heels down. I find that when they go up, some unfortunate situation has occurred, which usually involves some level of pain. 😆😆😆 Good to hear from you again!

It's been a while since I've posted in this thread. Part of it is because I swore off buying any new shoes for a while, and part of it is that I simply haven't shared every single thing I've bought. On display this time are shoes that I have no idea why I bought. Well, yes I do know why I bought them. Believe it or don't, occasionally I just don't feel like wearing super high heels somewhere. These Born oxfords serve the purpose quite nicely. At 3 1/2 inches, they are just enough of a heel to feel like you're wearing heels, but low enough that you kind of feel like you're not wearing heels. Furthermore, the styling is evidently not too much of a jump, even for those who are kind of negative toward my fashion choices in general. I guess I have pushed it so far that when I dial it back a notch or two, I suddenly seem normal. This is really my third time wearing these easy to get along with oxfords out, and they feel pretty much exactly like they look--boring, but functional.

Happy New Year to everyone! Even though I don't have to work today, I'm up at 4:30, whether I want to be or not. I've always been an early riser anyway, heck I used to deliver the Des Moines Register newspaper, back when kids were allowed to do such a job. That would have been an awesome job to do in heels. With the possible exception of Sundays. Yesterday was an unusual day at church. We had a single service, where we normally have two, and my son and I were given the day off as musicians. We didn't take it. Luckily, our choir director is very tolerant of us, and did not mind a bit that we showed up to wing it (in other words, no rehearsal). I did wear low heels to the service, however. I had no idea what to expect, so we brought everything but the kitchen sink with us, and I didn't feel like carrying all those instruments in super high stilettos.

My favorite clogs have split in half across the ball of my foot. They are made of molded plastic of some sort, rather than real wood. I have one pair in black, and one pair in brown. They have both suffered the same failure. I have decided to roll with it, and continue wearing them until they are unwearable. The structural failure is not really noticeable to the general public.

I got my record, and still have one day to do some walking in 2023. I did some number crunching, and noted some differences between this year and the previous record year, 2014. The main difference is that I did most of my mileage this year in actual high heels. I consider a "high" heel as one whose difference between heel and forefoot is 4 inches or greater. Less than 4 inches down to 3 inches, I consider a "mid" heel. Back in 2014, when I last walked more than 300 miles within a calendar year, 70% of my walking was in mid-heels. This year, about 70% of my walking was in actual high heels, and most of my mid heels were on the higher end of "mid," whereas in 2014, they were on the lower end of that scale. I did not get quite that specific in my statistics. At any rate, I have made a goal for 2024 to exceed my 2023 numbers, and I plan to do so by upping my monthly "quota" by 5 miles per month. I think I can manage it, provided that I remain healthy and uninjured.

I can't believe I missed your post! I also live in a smaller town in what used to be a "purple" state, now clearly a "red" state for the moment. I honestly think politics have little to do with how well one is accepted in a community. It's not nothing, but it's a small factor in the grand scheme of things. I have visited much more politically conservative places wearing heels, and never had a problem, at least not a violent one. This includes eastern Ohio and northern Georgia. I did get yelled at from a passing lifted pickup truck in Georgia, but nobody actually threatened to kick my ass.

I sometimes forget that we have a lot of eyes on us, perhaps we could call them "Silent Eyes." It does often seem that there are only 6 people who are paying attention at any given time, but @Bubba136's observations would suggest otherwise. In addition to concerns about the type of material that will get us labeled as a adult-only site, the fact is, I would really like it if we tried our best not to look silly. We have a hard enough time out there in the real world as it is.

I did talk to my cobbler about how he reheels these hollow molded plastic heels, and his solution is less elegant, but similar in concept to @Puffer's method. I assume it is also somewhat less time consuming for a busy shop. He says he takes a small bundle of wooden dowels, beats them in the hollow space in the heel, glues them in, cuts and sands them off, and then nails the new rubber heel cap to that. What I did not expect is that this simple question would lead to a several minute tirade on his part about how pretty much all modern shoes are junk. It might have been more than several minutes had I not been in rather a hurry--I actually sneaked out of work for a few minutes to go pick up my shoes, hoping that nobody would notice I was gone. They didn't.

Yeah, I get you about that. I rarely wear flats anymore on my own time. Because, why would you want to? As far as the other, yes, I kind of like the click click, although with shoes like yours, I find it to be more of a "Tok, tok." However, there are limits to that obnoxiousness. I currently have 3 pairs of shoes at the moment that I consider to be too loud. Usually, this is fixed with a reheel, just to keep things down to a dull roar.

I am not so sure that the extra half inch slows me down that dramatically, but rather the style of the shoe. You have inspired me to experiment in the future (might have to wait until spring). I don't have very many non-stilettos that have a steepness of 4 1/2" or greater, but I think the reason why I'm walking more slowly in stilettos is because I have to be more careful how I walk and where exactly I step, so as not to damage my shoes. If I were to do the experiment at say, a shopping mall or some other place that is perfectly flat and has no cracks in the pavement, the difference might not be as much. I have been rather motivated to set a new annual mileage record, and have walked about 11 miles on my three days off for the Christmas holiday. I now stand at over 308 miles for the year, or less than two miles of the previous record. I think I can manage to walk at least two more miles by the end of the year. For only the fourth time in my high heeling career, I did a five miler. 5.3 miles to be exact. Yes, my feet and legs were tired by the end, but I really suffered no ill effects. My left sandal started rubbing my instep slightly for the last mile, but it was a very tiny wound, and two days later I don't even notice it. Here is a picture of me right after the 5 mile walk. I am fortunate that the weather is unseasonably warm for December, about 45º F or 7º C.

There is a distinct, if subtle, difference between sore feet and tired feet. I normally log anywhere from 10-15,000 steps a day at work, and sometimes my feet are mighty tired at the end of the day, depending upon the exact nature of those steps. In construction, not all steps are created equal! However, I can certainly remember in years past barely being able to walk by the quitting time. That is what I would consider "sore" feet. Which would you characterize as your condition at the end of your day in 3 inchers? I personally find 3 inchers in generally to be good walking shoes, especially heels such as you describe. I also would not hesitate to go to 4 inch, depending upon the exact shoes/boots. I don't know that I'd want to wear 4 inch stiletto pumps for 20,000 steps (plus you'd have your heels tips worn significantly down by then), but a nice 1 inch broad block heel should be no problem. I should be interested to see how it went. I've never been to New York City before. Merry Christmas!

I think that the end goals of the jury selection process are not all that different in the various countries that more or less follow the Common Law system, it's just the details that can be a bit different. How very strange that we use the term "voir dire," which is French, when every other foreign word we use in the law is Latin. Depending upon what part of the U.S. you're in, wild, terrible mispronunciations of said foreign language terms are quite acceptable, even by professionals. I still cringe when I hear lawyers pronounce it "vor dyre." I wonder if I could get out of jury duty by calling a lawyer an idiot for pronouncing it like a hick. 😆

For the time, I was unable to be dispassionate. I had no hope of being able to wear heels in public in the late 1980s, as a practical matter. And I really did look terrible. It may be fortunate that I had that reaction at the time, because it allowed me to live my life more or less in peace for another 15 or so years, by which time society had changed enough to where I was able to do my thing without a terrible price to pay. Unlike you, I immediately dismissed myself as having any decent looking feminine qualities. If I had taken 10 minutes to really assess what I saw in the mirror, I would have realized that all of the visual dissonances I objected to could have been addressed individually and collectively with a small amount of effort. I'm not much of a believer in destiny, but that chance encounter with the mirror definitely changed my life, and it was ultimately for the better.