mlroseplant

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.

Man or woman, I am noticing lately that I am the only person wearing heels, period. To be fair, I don't get out much these days. Since we lost the "big" farmer's market gig for this year, I really don't get out much. During the summer by nature, church services are even more casual than they normally are, and they're pretty casual these days. There ain't no such thing as "Sunday Best" anymore. That's pretty much gone to "Easter Best" or "Christmas Eve Best." My counterparts in the other band, who play in the service before me, could always be counted on to wear heels, even if they were only 2 1/2". No longer. At any rate, I have been remiss. I have forgotten to post church outfits for two weeks in a row. Here they are. The pink-ish one features cheap Chinese mules by a company called Bella Marie. Maybe I'll talk in more detail about those later, because there's a story. The purple shirted one features Michael Kors Oksana sandals, which I have owned a very long time, and am barely competent at walking in them now. I wonder how awkward I looked 10 years ago wearing them.

Sounds similar to when one has just gotten off an overseas flight. Ain't that the worst?

I am not the king. I'm just the most normal weird guy you'll ever meet. And yes, I do gather all sorts of useless data, like keeping track of how long my razor blades last. One thing I have noticed since I set a goal of 300 miles a year in heels, and in the grand scheme of things that's not all that much, is that other than the occasional blister from walking three miles in a two mile shoe, there is no pain associated with heels anymore. The other thing I've noticed is that despite consuming more grain based beverages than I should, my weight has remained under a certain mark much more easily than it has in the past. It is quite true that, unlike either @Jkrenzer or @Cali, I am not in heels really all that much, even though it might seem like it. That is because you have to subtract out at least 10 hours every weekday for work and 6-7 hours for sleep. The rest of the time is mostly domestic stuff, and I'm not really walking anywhere. I cannot think of too many times when I've spent what I would call a full day in heels. Therefore, I must purposefully walk to get the practice I desire to maintain my endurance. I just happen to keep track of that, being a completely normal yet weird guy.

I don't know that I'd want to be out there for 11 years, though. It even seems a little bit ridiculous that under the best of circumstances, it would have taken me about 6 years to accomplish the same. Which is why when somebody says they have walked "hundreds of miles" in heels, I kind of take it with a grain of salt. I have no way to prove it, but I get the feeling I have walked many times farther in work boots over the past 11 years than I have in heels.

It's quite amazing how different people react to changing conditions. My feet do not much seem to care what temperature it is as far as their physical size, but rather they seem to care much more about what time of day it is. You know how they always tell you to buy shoes in the afternoon when your feet are bigger because of activity? Well, mine are the opposite. My feet are at their biggest the moment I roll out of bed. Go figure.

That's definitely an interesting way to spend 30 minutes. That's really neat that they do that every week. I sometimes wonder how one learns to play the carillion--I mean, there's nowhere to practice in private when you're really bad at it! I do not mind grocery shopping, it's the meal planning I hate. I feel like I've got about 12 dishes in my arsenal, and I keep doing them over and over again.

The other thing I've noticed is that on more than one occasion, 2 miles is not enough of a test. It seems I have several pairs that are perfectly fine for 2 miles, but in that third mile, they turn on me, almost without warning. Since I rarely encounter a situation where I'm wearing heels for an extended period, like if I worked in an office, it makes me wonder if these 2 mile heels would be ok for all day with only incidental walking.

In advance of today's services, I want to say that I have finally reached 2,000 documented miles in heels! It's taken me 11 years to get there, but I've finally made it. At the pace I have set these days, it should only take another 3 years to get to 3,000. I had a few bad years in there, particularly 2017, where, according to my records, I walked only 35 miles the entire year. Looking back at it, 2017 was a significant turning point for me in many ways.

Have you ever had heels you thought were your friends suddenly bite you in the foot? I thought about starting a whole new thread for this question, but this one is going pretty good right now, and it's not totally off the subject. Friends, I've had this happen to me a few times over the years, and now just recently. I called 2023 "The Year of the Band-Aid," or sticking plaster, or if you must, adhesive bandage. Since I have a lot of shoes, I don't always remember what comfort aids each of them needs, so I have made a list in my mobile phone of such. When I notice that a certain pair of shoes rubs in a certain spot, I'll make a note for next time where I need to apply a bandaid, or whether I need to use a pair of ball-of-foot cushions, and so on. I know, I know, I've said many times, if I can't walk at least two miles in reasonable comfort, forget it. However, if the simple addition of a cheap and readily available bandaid solves the problem, it's just part of the game. Many times, shoes will "grow out" of their silliness, and those that rubbed a little harshly in certain areas eventually stop and thereafter require no comfort aids at all. But sometimes, shoes that have been friends for a long time, and can be counted on to be comfortable all day, suddenly eat a hole in the side of one's foot without warning! Anybody had this happen to them?