mlroseplant

It is time for another trip to the cobbler. I have actually worn through a sole on my most durable pair of shoes, my True Religion mules, after 207 miles. I'm on my third set of heels with this pair, which have lasted an average of 80-90 miles each, a figure which is nothing short of remarkable, considering I was lucky to get 40 miles out of a set back in the day. What is also amazing is that I wore 4 1/2" stiletto mules to church today, and then later to the grocery store, and I realized as I was getting ready for bed last night, I didn't even really think about it all day. It's been a long while since the day I wore 4 inch boots to the mall (in retrospect, WAY too high for me at the time), and didn't think I was physically going to make it back to the car. I do not believe that I can credit only the years of walking in heels that has enabled me be able to wear quite high heels all day. I believe it is in combination of my foot exercises that I do to increase the strength and flexibility of my feet. I say this because I used to have foot pain from wearing flat work boots, and those days are also long in the past.

The job is beginning to gel a little bit. We are getting used to the equipment, getting used to the people we are working for (the customer), and we are getting used to pumping a lot of water! Not necessarily due to the new job, I can tell you I'm not going to make my walking quota this month. I'm not going to beat myself up about it either. Two of the guys on my crew run marathons, and there's a third guy who is there occasionally who also runs marathons. They spend a lot of time talking about running shoes. I mean, more than I thought was possible. Perhaps now I understand how other people feel about me, talking about shoes.

That's a very good point about it being evolutionary. Part of it is merely style evolution and part of it is simply getting better at walking in heels over the years. As many of you know, I have walked over 2000 documented miles in heels over a number of years. Although it's not recorded in any sort of organized, accessible way, I can guarantee you that most of the first 1,000 miles was done in what I would consider mid-heels, which for me is 3 - 3 7/8 height difference. The second thousand miles was done primarily in high heels, 4 inches or higher, and especially the last 500 miles. I am pretty sure I never counted anything less than 3 inches, which is the point where a heel begins to feel a little bit like a heel for me, and really I like to be at least 3 1/2" regardless. Someday I would like to master 5 inchers, but probably not with the idea of wearing them every day, just as a personal challenge. That will require a level of commitment that I don't currently have. I should concentrate more on becoming better in the shoes that I already have.

Quote from an older colleague at work, after struggling with something for a while: "You know, it's not always about doing it the easy way. [pregnant pause] Which is a good thing, because we're sure NOT doing it the easy way.

In a word, yes. While I also will not (generally) wear heels with any old guy clothes, I am also not ready to delve into anything that is not bifurcated on the bottom. How this is different or more radical than wearing Daisy Dukes with heels, I am not sure, but it feels more radical. Back on point, I have got to where I am rather gradually over a number of years, and I have landed on 4 - 4.5" as the height that feels right to me. Absolute heel heel height is not as important to me as the steepness. I would never wear a 4 inch heel that had a 1 inch platform. Not only does it look kind of weird, it doesn't have the right feel to it. If for some reason the only thing available were 3 inch heels, I probably wouldn't even bother, to be honest. That's why I never really got into the Nike Sky High Dunks. Not enough lift to them.

Now that I have actually been to the first day of the job, I have thought of a few jobs that were more boring, but not by much. The job is this: We are to inspect, photograph, and carefully record the condition of somewhere in the neighborhood of 55 underground datacom vaults. These vaults are concrete structures, typically about 3m x 4m, and about 3m high that were placed underground to facilitate the installation and routing of fiber optic cable. This is at a data center owned by a company you've heard of, so naturally all of these cables are critical to their operation. Because it is an underground installation, access is by manhole cover, which weighs, oh I don't know, at least 60 kg. You wouldn't want to drop it on your toe, lets put it that way. Then we have to lower a "sniffer" down in there, which tests for adequate oxygen levels and some other stuff. We have a special fan which will blast fresh air in there if it's not safe to breathe. Then a guy, attached to a special rig, with which we can pull him up if he goes unconscious, goes down in with a camera and takes a series of pictures inside the vault. After this is complete, we tear down the whole rig and do it all over again at the next vault. We are hoping to do two vaults per day. We only managed to do one yesterday. But at least I know all of the guys on the crew personally, and don't dislike any of them. Although we plan to rotate tasks, my job yesterday was to stand outside the hole (outside the barricade) and periodically record the readings on the air quality monitoring equipment (the "sniffer"), as required by OSHA regulations. And take care of all the other paperwork/documentation required by our customer. Which is almost comically voluminous, considering we're essentially going into a hole and taking a few pictures. Ok, a lot of pictures.

I have been reassigned. Starting today, I will be on a project which may turn out to be the most boring job I've ever done in my life. I hope I'm wrong about it, but it does not look promising. At least it's close to home.

It seems like every time I run across Jessica Simpson shoes, I look at them. But I've only ever had one pair, and I had really bad luck with them. As in catastrophic failure bad luck. These Miu Miu sandals don't seem like they're going to break, and they have the correct platform to heel height ratio to my eye. To me JS seems to have too much platform and not enough heel on many models.

There are a number of ways, but what I do is just email the photos to myself, and I get to pick my file size within some ranges. I'm not saying it's the best way, but it works for me.

Now that I have to get back to real life, note that I did ride my motorbike to church yesterday in these heels, and I did not crash. Nor did I draw any attention from the police, at least not to my knowledge. I hadn't worn my Miu Miu sandals in quite a long time, and I'm doing my best to spread the love to all the shoes I've decided to keep. Once again, I have no idea how I managed to walk in these things when I first got them, but I must have done so somehow. I wore these shoes for about 5 hours yesterday, and they were all right despite their extreme height. For whatever reason, Miu Miu brand seems to fit me just right, I only wish they weren't usually so expensive.

Haha, he was asking for it just riding the Harley! Vibrating, oil-leaking, cantankerous machines they were. They have improved somewhat over the years, largely thanks to competition from Mr. Honda.

While I was in the Twin Cities, I did see a number of women wearing high heels, and I didn't go anywhere near an office. It appears that wearing heels just because has not completely dropped out of the culture.

Once upon a time, I was one of those "all the gear, all the time" kind of people. Now, everything is a compromise in one way or another between safety and practicality. Sometimes it's more compromising than others. One of the factors is that to me, it's darned uncomfortable to go highway speeds with no gear on at all. I don't know how people do it. The only law I'm aware of in the U.S. concerning footwear and motor vehicles is that in Alabama, it's illegal to ride a motorcycle barefoot. The laws in the other 49 states seem to be silent on the subject. On the subject of helmet laws, again, it's up to each individual state. Iowa happens to not require helmets. Many states do.

I thought I posted it, but maybe I didn't. I wore them in June. Haven't worn them since, but hey, it's summer, and I don't like wearing enclosed shoe if I don't have to.

A new picture that my friend sent to me from our trip. We were having a good time trying out instruments at the swanky music store we visited. I'm probably at that moment laughing about what an incompetent player I am.

The reason why I don't enjoy riding a "traditional" motorbike in heels, though it's quite possible (see below), is because one has to shift gears with one's left foot, and use the rear brake with one's right foot. On older British bikes this may be reversed. Imagine that. To me, this is very awkward to do in heels. On a scooter, there is nothing to do with your feet except look awesome. I ride around our small town in shorts and mules all the time. This is probably foolish, but I'm 56 years old, and allowed to be foolish, and even the law allows me to be foolish. Yes, I can get a ticket for not wearing a seat belt in a car, but there is no helmet law. And certainly no high heel law. If I have to ride any further than a couple of miles, I wear the proper protective equipment, even if the footwear happens to have an elevated heel. I got almost zero comments in the Twin Cities. I mean, it's not like Chicago or New York, but it's kind of close to that in being a Big City. People do not say hello when you walk by, they look down. You sometimes have to wait more than 30 seconds at a traffic light. Stuff like that. The one person who did comment on my shoes was a fellow patron at our motel. A young-ish woman of South Asian descent with two small children. I came across her on two different days, and she commented on my shoes at length both times, noting that I had on different shoes than I did before. Other than that, nothing of any note happened, either at the music store or the concert. Ha ha ha.

What you say is true, historically. However, that is no longer true here where we live. How many people in the U.S. consider us to be a Christian nation, or would like us to be? Which, according to the U.S. Constitution, is not allowed at all, and for good reason. Still, we remain the majority, and therefore cannot truly be persecuted in the modern day in the U.S.

Ask, and it shall be given you; Seek, and ye shall find; Knock, and it will be opened unto you. That is the King Jim version, that's not how I usually say it in my vernacular, but it'll do. The shoes I wore: How impractical of me. I brought four pairs on a motorbike! And I wound up wearing them all. Krenzer is partially right--my friend Erika, whom I talk with on the phone pretty much weekly, is quite aware of my fashion proclivities. Amy (the one holding the viola in her hands) probably never knew, but she didn't say a word. Since they both live in the same metro, kind of run in the same circles, maybe the subject came up. I don't know. In any case, here are the four pairs of shoes I brought with me, and keep in mind, this is on a motorbike. I am so silly. The booties, Sofft Willa, are the ones I wore most of the time, the only ones semi-suitable for a crash that never happened, and hopefully never will. They have 3 1/2 cone-ish/block-ish heels, and I consider them my flats. The other pair in the same picture are my BCBGirls Bonny mules, my favorites ever! I HAD to bring those to show Erika. The third pair I brought was New Religion mules, which are pretty much indestructible as far as I know, and the fourth pair was my FSJ blue stiletto mules, which were my "dress" shoes for attending a concert/sing-along performance of the Brahms Requiem, which required me to stand much of the time. That was the least of my worries, as I got talked into sight reading the tenor part, and the piece lasts an hour and a half. Didn't even think about my feet, but my brain was totally fried.

I should probably stay out of this, but I never had much common sense. Let me keep this brief and free of f-bombs. As a Christian myself, I am very tired of outrage in general, and especially this. Let's pretend for a minute that this was, in fact, a depiction of the Last Supper, which it's not at all clear that it was. That Da Vinci painting was merely a depiction itself. Does anybody really believe that's how it happened in real life? I have no time for fundamentalist nonsense anymore. What does it say in the Bible? Last time I looked, Jesus said to love your neighbor as yourself. Love your enemies. Feed the poor. Spread the wealth. Welcome the immigrant. You know, things like that, plus a whole bunch more stuff so-called Christians don't really want to do. I don't recall where it says get outraged at every perceived slight to your sensibilities.

I have returned! And in one piece. Nobody wants to hear about my trip or my reunion with my university classmates, but I'm going to tell you anyway. I used to play in a string quartet with the two gals pictured here, and we were the best of friends. Actually, that's not how it happened at all, but we will pretend for the sake of brevity. As is so often the case, we came to appreciate one another much more when we became real adults instead of whatever you are when you're 20. Anyhow, each of us has continued with our music in different ways, and we were glad to get the chance to see each other again for the first time in 34 years. In the other photo, my son and I were getting ready to embark upon our trip. Luckily for us, nothing went wrong, even though he was riding a 43 year old motorbike. We barely even got rained on, which is nothing short of amazing. Even though it was probably inadvisable, I did not bring any flat shoes with me, and I got by with it. This is sort of why I got a scooter style motorbike in the first place. One humorous aside: My son is actually taller than I am by more than an inch in bare feet. Even with heels, this photo is deceiving. We may need to work on his posture.

I would definitely tune in if the balance beam in gymnastics were done in heels. In fact, everybody is getting so advanced these days, why not make it a requirement?

I will be absent from this group for a few days. This very morning, I will be traveling by motorbike(s), with my 15 year old son, to visit the wonderful Twin Cities of Minnesota. During that time, I will see my best friend from university, whom I have not seen in the flesh for 34 years! I will try to take some photos to share after I get back.

I know it's popular to complain about a certain group of females who are perceived as being overbearing, but it's the internet. All filters are off. You wouldn't get this crap in real life, at least not to that extent. It has not been my experience at all in my real life that women hate high heels. What they hate is when they are told what to do, as far as their own choices. It disappoints me a great deal that we too often devolve into running down a group of people for what amounts to a little bit of nothing. I cannot say that I haven't been guilty of the same, but I have noticed that over the past decade, I care less and less about what what my wife or any other woman has on her feet. That's because I have allowed myself, and to some extent, society has allowed me, to wear what I want. Yes, I enjoy seeing a woman in high heels, but I don't crave it like I used to because I no longer have to live vicariously through them.

Here's where we get into speculation, so I don't like to say, but there has got to be more to it than the explanation they gave in the letter returning our cheque for the annual fee. I don't like to toot my own horn, so I'll toot my wife's. She was a very successful vendor. Even compared to the food trucks (or roach coaches, as I am wont to call them) which cost their owners tens of thousands of dollars to buy, equip, and license, and we're just a couple of folding tables and a tent. I understand we've got lots of people asking where we are. I have absolutely zero evidence, but something is fishy in Denmark. Maybe they just didn't like my shoes.

The short answer is, "I don't know." The long answer is, "I have a pretty good hunch, but I really don't know for sure." Our application was rejected this year because there were too many vendors selling Asian food, they wanted more variety. Why we got cut instead of somebody else is a mystery. That gig was replaced by other, more sporadic things, where I have far less responsibility. Now that I think about it, a good deal of the reason why I used to see a fair number of heels is because that farmer's market was in the evening, and was in close proximity to several bars and restaurants. Perhaps people do still wear heels in those situations, I'm just not around to see it. Where you don't see heels anymore is at church or at the grocery store, the two places I'm most likely to visit. So here's a thought: Does it even matter whether high heels are actually worn? As long as there is some idle desire to have these shoes, and they are bought, manufacturers will keep making them. There does still seem to be an idle desire among younger women to wear heels, but nobody thinks of wearing them casually at all. They are strictly special occasion shoes. Therefore, there is no need for the cobbler because they don't wear out. Even in my own collection, the percentage that actually sees wear is fairly small. Nowhere near 1000 to 1, but I bet it's like 10 to 1. I should check sometime. That would be another interesting data point.