mlroseplant

I can't really be helpful, but I can tell a funny story. I got something on ebay (not shoes, but rather vintage lawn mower parts), and they claimed to have delivered it, but it was nowhere to be found. It wasn't particularly expensive or critical for any of my continuing projects, so I just blew it off. A YEAR LATER, it showed up at my house unexpectedly.

You, like me, are not content to play dress-up in front of a mirror at home. I really should use this time to do a little more of that, if for no other reason than to figure out what I need to get rid of, haha.

4 hours ago, Puffer said:

My own (wooden) decking that I installed at least 15 years ago has shown very few signs of deterioration; it is pressure-washed and re-sealed at no more than 24-month intervals.

OK, so I know what I'm doing this week. And probably in my ratty tennis shoes.

Sandals are definitely trickier than full coverage shoes. Glad you found a pair that doesn't bite you back!

Been a while for this thread. I thought I would write to say that, after 12 years, it is still an adventure living with a wife whose first language is not English. She sent me to the market for some shallots. Easy enough. When I got back (after de-masking and washing my hands), I told her that I brought her shallots. She thought I said "salad," and started to give me the third degree about getting it wrong. In her mind, the two words sound nearly the same. I can empathize, because the Vietnamese consonant clusters "ch" and "tr" are nearly indistinguishable to me, though to a native speaker, the difference is plain as day. 

On 5/1/2020 at 3:20 PM, RonC said:

Might want to consider the composite deck material next time around.  They supposedly don't have shrink/expand issues and hold up longer than wood decking without the need for staining/sealing/painting.  A few people in my subdivision have re-done their decks with these products (Trex is one name brand that comes to mind) and swear by it.

23 hours ago, Puffer said:

In my UK experience, very little shrinkage of treated decking boards has occurred except in the hottest and driest weather - and we rarely get enough of that for a long period!   A small gap (say 1/8" for a 4" board) is about right.   As to composite boards, the limited annual maintenance and clean appearance are plus points but the material can sag or warp and certainly does expand at end (butt) joints rather more than wood.   Its strength may be an issue too - it can be soft (watch those heels!) or prone to breaking away if edges or ends are not properly supported or reinforced.   All told, I prefer wood, and it is typically cheaper to buy.

Even butted up to each other, no decking is ever going to be all that friendly to a very thin heel like that pictured. The slightly thicker heels I normally wear outside are still not a problem at all. I haven't had a lot of exposure to the composite decking material, except for one friend I used to visit had it on his deck, and I was not impressed. Although the flooring on the large deck (mine is definitely on the small side) was straight and flat consistently, the whole thing was always covered with a sort of chalky material, which I assume was from whatever-it-was breaking down in the sunlight. I never wore stilettos to his house (though I did wear wedges), so I can't comment on the softness of the material.

As we have wild temperature extremes here in my part of the U.S., sometimes within the span of 24 hours, shrinkage is definitely an issue. Tell you what, I'm just not going to worry about it! I'll just be careful with my very thin heels, which I ought not to be wearing out there anyhow. It will most probably never be an issue to anybody but me, unfortunately.

16 hours ago, Cali said:

@mlroseplant that looks like rubbing from driving. But sandals like that are great for running errands.

That makes sense, but I am awfully sure I've never driven in these. I think it was a much more sudden an traumatic event. Who knows, maybe a tuba fell on them. That scratching is actually pretty deep, though you can't see it in the photo. I'm not too fussed about it--it's not like I paid a lot of money for them, and it's not like they're super gorgeous or anything.

I have also had shoe stretchers (actually just one, I guess I am twice as slow as everybody else) for a number of years, and yes, they do work. I have two things to add here: 1) You did a good job by taking an entire week to stretch out your boots. I have actually screwed up a shoe by trying to go too much, too fast. 2) If you need to use these for "high" heels, you will need to purchase a different set of stretchers. Those will not work well on heels in the 4 inch + range. They are exactly the same thing, but with an angle put on the stretching part to accommodate the shape of the higher heeled shoes. I am also glad to know they work on man-made material, at least somewhat. I have never tried them on anything but leather before.

8 hours ago, Jkrenzer said:

Love that shoe, brand and style please. Color looks to be light grey, want a pair. Heels look higher than your normal but perfect for me.

I've surfaced many decks over the now many years and have always butted the planks knowing they will shrink. Luckily now my current home i have a large paved brick patio, no more lumber decks.

They are called Steve Madden Barbb. I have them in black and what they call "bone." I cannot remember when I got the black pair, but it was quite a while ago, probably in 2015 or 2016. Later on, I decided I wanted the bone pair also, and I searched and searched, and never could find a pair. I ended up buying a cheap knockoff pair, I believe directly from China, which are cute, but they're not leather, and they're a couple of notches below on the quality as well. Those are the pair in the middle, a sort of blush-pink patent. Right after I got the knockoff pair, I found the bone pair that I actually wanted in the first place on ebay or Poshmark or some such place.

They are exactly 4 1/2" in my size 8 1/2, and as you can see, do not have a platform. The soles are rather well padded, though. They are not paper-thin. The heels are very thin, however. They are not leather-covered, they are made of some sort of shiny plastic, in contrast to the uppers. Despite their looks, they are super easy to walk in, even for me, as that's about the upper limit of my gracefulness. I have worn them out on numerous occasions, especially the black pair.

A couple of years ago, that particular style of mule seemed to be all over the fashion magazines, so I would think you could find something similar, though perhaps it might be difficult to find something quite that high or steep. If you do find a pair, they shouldn't be all that expensive. I think the brand new asking price was about 100 USD. Hope this helps.

14 hours ago, Cali said:

Two women outside the post office gave me the old "How can you walk in those heels?"  I laughed. I talked to them when I came out.

4 hours ago, JeffB said:

Sharp shoes there! I always find it amusing when women ask how guys like us can walk in heels, as if it's some sort of magic we whipped up! 

Yeah, I get that all the time, too. And I have just rediscovered the answer--you simply have to pound the pavement, regularly. With shoes that actually fit you, and don't give you blisters and such. But anyway, since the Wedge Thread has resurfaced, I thought I would share my latest pair. It's a very unusual purchase for me, not being a big wedge fan, and particularly wedges these low. I think the thing that got me was the fact that they are thong sandals, and I have a thing for that, and I don't have any in my collection at the moment. And the fact that I own a number of BCBG shoes, and I know they tend to fit me well. I don't know the model name, but I do know that one can zoom around in these things, due to their secure fit and lack of steepness. I have also managed to goof them up in short order, probably zooming around in them inadvisably. I must have scraped them on a step or a curb or something, they didn't come to me that way. Maybe some black permanent marker, or shoe polish, or something will cover that up.

I rebuilt my deck two years ago because the wood was beginning to rot away, was not high heel friendly, and needed to be replaced anyway, even without regard to high heels. When I rebuilt it, I butted the boards right up against one another, which is not standard practice, but I wanted to create a stiletto heel friendly deck, and at the time, I was not the only person who might be walking on the deck in stiletto heels. That is no longer the case, but that's another story for another time.

At any rate, in the span of two years, the boards have shrunk, and there are spots that are once again not stiletto heel friendly. The treated lumber I bought was very wet when I bought it, but that's pretty much the case everywhere you go. I don't know what I could have done, except buy the lumber in advance, and let it sit out in the weather for a year or two before using it. I'm not bitching, it's still a very nice installation for somebody who had no idea what he was doing, but once again, I have to be very careful not to ruin my heels!

OK, guys (blokes), this needs to stop, right here, right now. My comment was a poor attempt to inject some humor into the discussion. While I personally would welcome some further discussion on the the subject, we risk the whole thing being deleted by the management. This is not the place for it. I am always glad that we are a diverse community. 

1 hour ago, redandwhite said:

Love them. Michael Kors?

They sure are! Model name is Oksana. I have them in black, also. Here is a photo comparing heel heights between size 5 1/2 and size 9, and it also shows the sandals a little bit better.

1 hour ago, Jkrenzer said:

Kinda miss the original point of this topic.

Do you suppose Mike Pence has ever worn heels? Come to think of it, if I were visiting Mayo Clinic, I would certainly wear heels. Actually, I hope I never have to visit there. That would probably mean something bad happened.

I guess I am back! I walked over 3 miles in my Bonny mules yesterday, wearing my new Talbot's "Perfect" shorts. Whereas two weeks ago, I would have had trouble completing such a walk in heels, I've built my endurance back up to where it wasn't a problem. In fact, I was still smiling when I returned home. I know I've said this before, but it still continues to amaze me that, despite their looks, the BCBGirls "Bonny" mules really are the perfect walking shoes. You're not going to walk 15 minute miles in them, don't get me wrong, but for normal speed walking, they are good for as long as you want to go.

And now about the shorts. I bought a number of new shorts for this summer, all of them in a dressier sort of style than what I've worn in the past. This particular pair is labeled right on the inside "Perfect Short." I found this somewhat humorous, because they are NOT perfect. For one thing, even though they're size 4P, they are pretty loose on me, even in my current enlarged state. Second, the back pockets are stitched shut, which I can easily rectify, but still. Third, they are a little bit on the long side for my taste. I don't feel like I can wear longer shorts because my legs are short enough as it is, without chopping them off visually in the middle of the thigh. With modification, they might be close to perfect. Time to see my tailor!

Sometimes, you just can't win for losing. I cut my nails down to about 2 mm so they wouldn't interfere with my piano/organ playing, but would still be functional enough for guitar. Yesterday, I used my leaf blower, and when I pulled the starting rope, I managed to catch the middle fingernail on my right hand on something-or-other, breaking it off (through a glove!). I had to cut it down to the quick, and then some. Oh, well. Good for keyboards, OK for brass, where fingernail length just doesn't matter, bad for fingerstyle guitar. I better work on improving my flatpicking technique for the next two weeks until the thing grows out again.

On 4/24/2020 at 10:52 PM, Pumped said:

I like messing with my nails. i do give myself manicures, but I also do some glue on fake nails from time to time. I have some full cover nails that I use temporary adhesive and they come off almost too easy, but no damage to my nails. I experimented last weekend with glue on acrylic tips and acrylic filler. It was fun to do, but it is hard on my nails by the time I remove the fake nails. i only wear the fake nails at home, so on one day, off the next.

Here is from last weekend,

Those definitely aren't bad for fakes. I have seen a lot worse, even done by a professional. For whatever reason, I have always liked long nails. As with the attraction to high heels, it's probably pointless to try to figure out why, but it could have something to do with growing up in the late 70s, early 80s, when long nails were much more in style than they are today. I guess there were fewer buttons to press back then, who knows? At any rate, I had decided that during this time of social and work isolation, that I would grow my own nails out a little. I have always kept my nails a bit on the long side for a guy, but nothing too crazy or noticeable, usually about 2 to 3 mm. I wanted to see if I could get them out to 5 mm from the free edge. The longest I ever got before was 4 mm, right hand only, but due to my job, one of them broke at that point. However, this time I made it not quite to 4 mm, both hands, and decided to chop them off because they had begun to interfere with my musical instrument playing. I thought about this for several days, and realized that playing music was more important to me (especially during this time of insanity) than having long nails, especially given my ugly hands. Here's what they looked like about a week before I cut them. Left hand looked similar.

16 hours ago, RonC said:

Most of my dislikes have been mentioned here already, and I despise them.  But I need to add flatforms.  Geeze, I hate the way those look.  And of course, it seems the girls love them.  Sad.  

Oh yeah, I forgot about flatforms. My little gal who was wearing my boots a couple of months ago, posted elsewhere, is a HUGE fan of flatforms. And Crocs. And Birkenstocks. Good thing she's cute, or she would not be allowed in my house anymore. I'm only about 80% kidding.

Did anybody mention jellies? You know, those clear plastic shoes with holes in them that maybe you should wear to the swimming pool (and nowhere else)?  I'm also on the fence about these clear PVC/Lucite heels that seem to be in style lately. Even the designer level heels seem to be incorporating this clear PVC portion. I guess the sandals are OK, and the closed-toed ones are OK from a distance. However, it's a little disconcerting to actually be able to see the smashed together toes inside the shoe when viewed close-up. I'm not sure that's a good look.

20 hours ago, RonC said:

While I like the look of those, I certainly couldn't run in them as they would be flying off my feet.  Anything that doesn't hold secure at the back of the foot just tends to kick off my foot when I walk.  Something about the way my toes work I would guess - I just don't grip well with them?

 

Something about these particular shoes just fit my particular feet, I guess. There was no gripping required. The instep strap fit snugly, to the point where you really couldn't get these on or off hands-free.

10 hours ago, SF said:

Bottom line, we can all thank communist red china for the terror, lies and misery they have inflicted upon us.  communism is BAD for children and other living things....   sf

We might get dinged here a little bit by management, so let's not get too crazy, but I must point out that Communist Vietnam has done rather better than almost everybody with this pandemic, so it's not as simple as all that. They are every bit as awful as Communist China, as far as the government goes.

23 hours ago, Cali said:

And you haven't been working on a ladder?   JK

 

If you will excuse me for a few minutes, I will go get a 4' ladder and bite your ankles!

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UN-MERGING THE REPLIES

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I have finally managed to break in my second pair of BCBGirls Bonny mules. As I mentioned before elsewhere, my beloved Bonny sandals have become somewhat tired, and a little ratty looking, although they're still not to the point where I absolutely wouldn't wear them out in public. By chance, I wound up buying two more NOS replacement pairs, and I had forgotten how long it took to break in the first pair. The leather underneath the beading is heavy and quite stiff, which is probably why they have lasted so long, despite fairly constant use. Believe it or not, once properly broken in, these are all-day, multi-mile shoes. Admittedly, they're not great for non-paved surfaces, but that is expecting way too much of something like this. I am now working on breaking in the third pair, which is just as stiff as the first two. According to my records, I got the first pair nearly 5 years ago, so it's possible I'll be able to wear Bonnys well into my 60s.

3 hours ago, w6ish said:

the jeans i'm wearing in the video are like painted on and leave nothing to the imagination-that much sexual energy is way too much for the lads here.  (i've already been given a warning for being too sexy!)

as for the friends: they are all, indeed: very strange.  i don't do "normal".

as for the gal who shot the vid, and who had the meltdown, and who told me to never call her again...  yes you guessed it.  she called on Saturday and we're going out somewhere today.  maybe i can find out more about what sent her on such a tizzy.

I should probably stay out of this, but I'm not that smart, evidently. In the gentlest and most respectful way possible, may I suggest that it's not the actual pictures themselves that cause a problem. It is your constant and insistent dialogue, directing us specifically about what we should be paying attention to in said pictures, and why we should be paying attention to that, that causes the problem. And it ain't the high heels, if you get my drift.

2 hours ago, Jkrenzer said:

What did you step on?

I am idly curious about this as well, but again, I would suggest you refrain from answering, as I'm sure the management would rather us not go down that rabbit-hole.

Ohhhh, this is a tough one. My first reaction is to say Birkenstocks, because that is the shoe I first had a sort of violent reaction to. In 1990, I had a chance to visit Germany, Austria, and Switzerland as a chaperone to a high school student group. It was a wonderful experience, and I learned more practical German in three weeks than I had in four years of study at college. However, there were these.  .  . sandal-thingies that it seems everyone was wearing over there, often with socks. I remember thinking that I was glad we didn't have these things in the U.S. And then, wouldn't you know, just a very few short years later, they started showing up EVERYWHERE. Arghhhhhhh! With the passage of time, they don't seem nearly as bad as Crocs, but I'd still ban them if I could. I also hate kitten heels, but they are way down the list. Rubber flip flops (thongs to some of you) are generally hideous, especially when they get the least amount of wear on them (which takes about a week), but I rather like the very thin-soled leather ones.

This is way too hard a question for a short answer!

Hopefully we have come full circle, and now we all understand one another. I would like to leave this discussion with one final thought. I realize that social media has become an integral part of the way we interact and communicate with each other, and indeed with the world. However, let us not place upon it more importance than it deserves. It is in many ways a fantasy land, having little to do with real life and real social interactions. This is of course not universally true, and maybe not even mostly true, but it is certainly somewhat true. Let me give you an example from my own life. If I were to post the following photos on my Instagram or wherever, one might come to many different conclusions about my social life, and most probably all of them would be wrong. The fact is, I have no "social life" with any of these girls, even though it certainly looks in these photographs as though I do. The problem with social media is that there is often very little backstory, and to me that is most of what makes up worthwhile and valuable social interactions.

14 hours ago, Cali said:

It depends on the type of heel.  Block heel boots and booties, some wedges, I can forget thinking about them. Stilettos and and other small heels, no.  I need to watch where I put my foot. I can even run in some heels.

13 hours ago, p1ng74 said:

Yeah I've run in 4" heels before.  It's not as bad as it sounds actually.  

HA! That reminds me of a pair of Söfft sandals I used to own, model name Calvados, right at about a 4" heel and a bit of a platform, for 3+" difference. As far as being light on your feet, you could do just about anything in these heels, including sprint. I don't know what it was about those shoes, but you could actually run for an extended period in them. I finally trashed them out a couple years ago, they were just no longer presentable, aesthetically. I have not really tried to run for more than a few steps in any of the shoes I own presently. I don't think it would be advisable.