mlroseplant

I have no idea why I'd ever be angry about it, but thanks for being tactful anyhow. It's a lost art. I'm not asking the question to judge the answer, I'm just curious. I know a lot of people who don't like to sing traditional hymns for a number of different reasons, and now I know Shyheels's reason. Not surprisingly, his reason is a little different than most people's objections. We have two different services at our church, a contemporary music service at 9:00, and what we now call a "Blended" service at 10:15. We used to have three services, but. . . declining membership, you know the drill. So the blended service consists of two organ hymns which are out of the "old" hymnal, and three typically more contemporary songs, which are accompanied by a band. That bit is me and my son on guitar and bass, and usually a pianist and another singer as well. The stuff the band does is a little bit different than what the contemporary service band does an hour earlier, in that it's not really what I would call "Christian Pop," and the 9:00 band most certainly is. I guess you could say that my band plays hymns or songs which were written in more modern times, roughly after 1975. The organ accompanies the older stuff, which occasionally includes your cited hymn, No. 377 (In the Methodist hymnal anyway) "It Is Well with My Soul." I find that to be a difficult one to sing, not because of the lyrics or the story, of which I was up to now unaware, but because of the tune and the typical way our organist plays it. It definitely requires some thought--that one does not sing itself. Here is my thought about hymns in general. Like them or lump them, they were designed to be sung congregationally. Some of the more modern pop stuff really is not. And while you will find some singing enthusiastically at the contemporary service, it has been my observation that many are content to stand there and listen. I could go on, but perhaps this is a bit much for a thread about gait. Not that we care about such rules around here, I'm just sayin'.

I own rainbow heels. They're not particularly in your face, but they are rainbow. They're Shoedazzle brand, about 4 1/2" high, and probably the single most worn pair of any of my stiletto heels. Most walked in, anyway. As far as an event goes, the only way you can get me to one of those is either to pay me a fair amount of money, or stick an instrument in my hand and tell me to march. That goes for any event, not just Pride events. I don't do events. I don't recall that anybody has reacted to my rainbow shoes one way or the other. I'm sure somebody has said something in the last 3 or 4 years since I've owned them, but it doesn't stick in my mind.

I know the advent of AI is going to create a lot of work for me, but maybe not the kind I want. Sometimes, I even miss working at Firestone. Shifting the topic back to the subject of gait, one thing I have definitely noticed in 2024 is that I can no longer just put on a pair of shoes and go. I really need to warm up for 10 or 15 minutes first. I do not know whether this is because of age, or whether it's because the heels I typically wear nowadays are considerably steeper than they used to be, or a combination of both. On most days, I will wear around a 4 inch effective heel for my morning walks, and I find that on most days it takes a good ways before I finally feel like I'm gliding down the street. Sometimes the better part of a mile. I never noticed that so much before this year.

I've had it happen many times where a driver wants to stop way sooner than necessary to let me walk in front. Happens in the grocery store parking lot all the time. The good thing is, I most probably won't get run over by accident. Someone might try to run me over on purpose, however. You just never know. Some people are naturally angry.

Here we are at the end of another year. I wonder what 2025 will bring? I am not one to make New Year resolutions, but I have been thinking loosely about things I would like to accomplish in the coming year. For one thing, once the weather improves, there are some repairs/improvements I need to make to my house that I've already put off at least a year longer than I should have. Another goal that I've had in the back of my mind for a while is to make a "how to walk in high heels" video. There are two main reasons why I haven't made one yet: First, it's very unclear that I currently have the production resources to make the sort of video I would like. Second, I don't think I've mastered the art to the level where I feel I could instruct others competently. Part of the problem is that, even if I am doing everything what I would call "right," I still don't like the way I look, and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it, because I am physically bowlegged. I can try to compensate for it, but the fact is, my legs will never be long and straight. My knees can be physically touching, but my calves will always have a gap between them that is disproportionate to the rest of my legs. So, the video will probably never happen. The other high heeled goal, mentioned elsewhere, is what do I make my walking goal for next year? I did 350 miles this year, and I feel pretty good about that. It may seem silly to some to make an artificial athletic goal for something that is essentially an aesthetic fashion accessory, but I can tell you that if I simply walked in athletic shoes, I wouldn't walk nearly as much. I just like walking in heels. I am hesitant to up the ante and say that I'm going to do 400 miles next year, because so much of it is dependent upon my work situation, which is far from stable at the moment. I had planned 300 miles for this year, and the only reason I was able to make it to 350 is because for a good while my work schedule allowed me to go 1 - 1.5 miles every day before work. After a while, that adds up. To finish this post, here is last Sunday's church OOTW. I decided to go with a sort of monochromatic look, as I often do. I did not wear matching shoes because I just didn't feel like it. And besides, I hadn't worn these Coach Cammy pumps in a little while, and I was not feeling energetic. The Cammys are a mere 4 inches, and they are super light. As long as I remember to put a Bandaid or some tape on my right third toe (the right shoe rubs me there for some reason), they are all day shoes without thinking about it. I got a couple of compliments about my outfit, but nobody specifically mentioned the shoes. I guess there is no real reason to, as they are styled very conservatively. Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everybody, I am taking the last day of the year off from pounding the pavement in heels. I'm going to do this for two reasons: 1) It is snowing and windy, and 2) I made it to my goal of 350 miles for the year yesterday. That is correct, in the year 2024 I walked 350.6 (≈564 km) documented miles in high heels, beating my old record of 312.7. The reason I was able to accomplish that many miles is because, unlike last year, I didn't have any months where I walked basically none. Slow but steady wins the race. The reason I say I ended with a whimper is not because I'm taking the last day of the year off, but rather the way my walk ended yesterday after I knew I had exceeded 350. I have been breaking in a new pair of clogs, a fairly smart looking pair of Diane von Furstenburg that I picked up for a very reasonable price. My mistake was wearing them basically unvetted two days in a row. I should know better than that by now. I should know a lot of things by now. Anyway, despite having brought a Bandaid with me, I could feel holes being worn in the skin of my right foot. I cut the final walk short as a result, and sure enough, by the time I got home, I had two blisters. Not really the way I wanted to end the year, but that's about my luck. Whether I will go for more than 350 for next year, I haven't decided. It really wouldn't be that hard to do, but one has to stay disciplined for an extended period of time, and that's not really my strong suit. Perhaps the reason I set these goals in the first place is so that I will remain at least somewhat disciplined.

Oddly enough, as a musician, I don't listen to music near as much as your average person. Even as I write this, the only sound in the room is the gentle "tick-tock" of the wall clock. I rarely listen to music in the car (my son sure does), and I certainly do not listen to music during my morning high heeled walks. It is the rare occasion that there is not a tune or harmony in my head, though. I am somewhat a student of hymnody, and as the guy who has the responsibility--er, I mean privilege--of leading the hymns (the traditional ones, anyway), I try my best to make my interpretations expressive and interesting. Usually bombastic, too. It doesn't work well every time. It all depends on how well I'm jibing with the organist. We've been frienemies for 20+ years.

I will turn your own question on yourself. Do you dislike all hymns, or only certain types? My personal favorites tend to have been written before 1850 or so. I dislike these modrun praise songs, although I'm pretty good at them. We get to put that claim to the test tomorrow, yay!

I consider myself to be pretty situationally aware, and I am more generally surprised at the people who don't notice me more than I am at the people who do. In my personal experience, Gen Z females are the most likely to say something if they do notice.

I am sure there is somebody out there who takes that view, and maybe several somebodies. However, my personal philosophy compares wearing heels to practicing an instrument. When you are learning to play the piano, for example, you don't ever worry that someday you'll be too good at it, and it will be boring. The fact is, you will never get too good at it, and even though you might be world class, you still have to practice every day, or you lose that laser focused edge pretty quickly. I understand that dancing ballet is much the same way. You can't just take a week off without there being consequences. The goal is to make wearing heels look like it's very easy, even though oftentimes it is not. What I have mastered pretty well in the last 12 years is sheer endurance. What I have not mastered is super great form and making it look like it's no effort at all. Everybody has his own idea about what a good walk should look like, but I would find it doubtful that anybody gets a thrill out of struggling, unless it's a fetish thing, and that is really beyond the scope of this forum. To pursue the musical analogy further, I don't think I will ever find it thrilling to forget the lyrics to a song in front of hundreds of people, or lose the groove temporarily. Your thought is not without merit. What has happened over the last 12 years is that it takes a steeper heel to get that certain feeling. When I started, a 3 inch heel felt like a heel. Today, I typically don't even bother with anything that shallow. It takes at least a 3 1/2" difference between toe and heel before a shoe begins to feel like a heel, and 4" is about right. But, just like I will never be a concert pianist, you are quite correct that I will never master walking in the highest heels. Therefore, there will always be something to work toward.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I also do this, on about the same timeline. If it's really, really cold, I'll break out the wool long johns, but most of the winter I wear cotton leggings that come down to about mid-calf. For whatever reason, my legs get cold before my upper body.

I haven't had a professional pedicure in roughly 10 years, since my favorite nail tech quit the biz. However, I learned a lot by observation in the several years I did go, and I also learned that I am very picky about who gets to touch my feet. Therefore, I do my own these days. When I can no longer reach my feet, we'll revisit the subject.

Resurrecting another old topic here. Since it has often been very cold here, sometimes I give up on actually walking outside and practice walking in heels inside. You would think that after all these years, I would have a great sense of balance. It turns out that when put to the test, I do not. I struggle to walk slowly, and have trouble balancing on one foot casually. If I think about it in advance and am prepared for it, of course I can do it, but if I walk super slowly and suddenly decide to pause mid-stride, I'm absolutely terrible! Even the pose shown here is not accomplished without thought. Some days are better than others.

I'm resurrecting an ancient topic, but sometimes it takes a long time to have relevant experience, and this company, as far as I know, is still a going concern. I have exactly one pair of FSJ shoes, and my initial experience was bad. My blue mules failed on me literally within 200 meters. Both heel tips crumbled in rapid succession. For whatever reason, I did not give up on them and put hard rubber tips on them, as I do with all of my heels eventually. Here we are more than three years later, and I can honestly say that they are one of my "go to" summer shoes. I even brought them on my motorbike trip last summer (did not actually ride in them, however). They have held up very well.

I don't believe I have ever laughed at anybody struggling in heels, but I knew from a young age that some girls were better at it than others. Today, my internal voice is much more likely to say, "Oh, honey. . . let's fix this just as soon as we can." I have never offered my services as high heel tutor, but I have had several students over the years. My success rate is exactly 0%. I must be a very bad teacher.

I finally grabbed another church OOTW photo. It almost didn't happen because the sun was out--again. I have mentioned before that especially at this time of year, the angle of the sun makes it almost impossible to take a decent photo in my spot at noon. Yesterday there were some thin clouds, however, so I'll call this good enough. I had my Christmas red on yesterday, as it was the last Sunday in Advent. My Steve Madden Ronni pumps in red are finally getting some use, even though they're 1/2 size too big. With inserts, they're acceptable when worn barefoot. I almost step out of them, but not quite. Pants are Loft, shirt and tie from some Vietnamese shop in Hanoi.

The way geometry works, you wouldn't really gain anything wearing heels vs. standing on tiptoe. Platforms change this equation, giving you inch-for-inch increased effective height, but I would say as a practical matter, any platform higher than two inches is precarious to wear in the real world, and safety concerns would outweigh any utility. Maybe two extra inches would be enough under certain circumstances. Ladders Last, innit?

It's funny about that, isn't it? In the past several years, I have been making notes about the idiosyncrasies of my many shoes. One of the notes says, "Not a 3 miler." It took me three tries before I realized that a 2 mile walk in these particular sandals was very pleasant, but each time I tried to go 3 miles, the silly things ate holes in the tops of my feet. The very same shoes are just fine for standing 5 hours at the farmer's market hawking egg rolls, but for some reason, there's just something about that third mile.

It doesn't take much in this day and age for someone to ask, "Why are you so dressed up?" We have always been headed toward the sloppy, but I think the pandemic accelerated the process. A button down shirt and pants that are not jeans will do the trick. The bar is pretty low. Of course, because I habitually wear heels, I'll always be singled out. I just feel like I can't wear heels, no matter how casual, and otherwise dress like I just got ripping down a plaster ceiling. So maybe the whole thing does keep me better than I really am. Pivoting back to the true original subject, I can't really come up with more things that are easier to do in heels, but I can come up with one thing that I thought should be way easier in heels, and it just isn't so. With the prevalence of online shopping, I'm sure most if not all of you have run into those plastic air pillows they often use to pack items for shipping. I think it's a great invention, WAY better than styrofoam packing peanuts, but you have to pop all of those bags in order to dispose of them in a reasonable volume of space. I figured stiletto heels would be the perfect tool for this. Uh, no. Does not work at all. If the pillows were blown up really hard, they might work, but blown up as intended, stilettos do not cover enough area to actually burst the bags. Perhaps if you put some sort of sharp object on the end of the heel it might just pierce the plastic, but then you'd lose the satisfying BAM! It's an idea that should work, but doesn't work all that well.

I took a chance, with the volume set low, and looked up the Vixen video. Now that I hear it again, I kind of vaguely remember it. Once removed from the genre, it's not a terrible song. It has an actual tune. It's a bit cheesy (the modulation on the last chorus really solidifies the cheesiness factor), but to me it's an ok pop song, you just have to think of it as a pop song. There was no pitch correction and no quantizing back then, so most of that must have been actual musicians performing an actual song that didn't have 12 writers and 23 producers. You are so right about the heel shape(s) being instantly recognizable. It reminds me of how my ex-wife used to regard the shoes of the 80s with disdain as being "super dated" looking. With many styles, particularly the lower heeled ones, I can't really argue with her. I am looking at my own collection, and wonder how many shoes look a little long in the tooth.

I was trying to think of anything that I can do more easily in heels besides knead bread dough, which these days I rarely do anyhow. Do I sing better in heels? I think I do, but it's probably all illusion, and there's no real way to test it. I can't think of another thing that is actually easier to do in heels. I'm trying to think through my everyday routine, and if I'm honest, there's nothing that heels don't make harder, if only incrementally. Then it hit me. It's not something one would normally think of as being a practical use, but if I didn't have heels, I probably would not exercise nearly as much as I do. Y'all know that I like to pound the pavement in heels on the regular, and I have just thought to myself that I would probably be more tempted to sit here in front of this computer and talk about heels, rather than going out and walking in them. As an ancillary to that, I no doubt take way better care of my feet and ankles than I would if I didn't wear heels.

I do the same exact thing when making bread, for the same reason.

Sometimes I forget that there is often a big difference between what immediately springs to my mind when somebody says the words "high heels," and what most everybody else thinks. Once I actually watched the video, what I found impressive is not that they're high heels (because they just aren't), but the fact that she would attempt all these climbs in such flimsy sandals of any heel height. Having worn and broken a lot of sandals over the last decade, that would be one of the last styles I'd choose under those conditions.

I have not seen a "convertible" high heel that I find attractive, and to be honest, why would I have wasted the last 12 years training just so I can wimp out and change to flats? I do admit to having brought backup shoes with me on a number of occasions, but I've never actually had to use them! Well, except for that one time, when I experienced catastrophic shoe failure. Also, I don't understand how the shanks work in these convertible heels. They couldn't be terribly durable.