CrushedVamp

I was barely an adult and at a funeral of all places when I first saw a sweater dress and ever since then have appreciated the style of that particular dress. My wife has a few, but my favorite is because of how we got it. We were having lunch in the food court of a mall and beside us was a boutique store. Way up high was this garment and so the gently quarreling that my wife and I so began. I said it was a sweater dress and she said it was a long sweater and so we went back and forth during our meal. Afterwards I asked the clerk at the store which it was and she said it was a very short sweater dress then asked us quickly if we wanted it. Needless to say, that very short sweater dress came home with us. That one was gray in color, but I admire the boldness of red too, in both the Red Dress and Fire Engine Red manicure. Good for you though the color defies your username! (Just teasing you Bluejay) I saw a woman at the store the other day wearing a bold red dress with red beret… something else I love for no apparent reason except I have always liked berets, and wanted to compliment on her outfit as she was older, perhaps 65 or so and wore it stunningly well, but did not want to sound creepy so I stayed mum. But I thought she looked sharp.

Wow, that is quite the inventory system you have there. IF... and I am in no way saying you have too... but if you switched that to an Excel spreadsheet, and then added a few columns for dates, hours worn and miles treaded you could have a detailed list of your heel's life history. Of how many miles on them, what days they were worn and where. By akl means, add what is important information for you. Compile that date into a graph and you could see just which shoes were worn the most, or how many had the most miles, and even in actual miles or by percentages. I do this with my money and it has its uses. You could do it with shoes...

There are also differences in clothing and shapes from region of the world to region of the world. I only know this because I once watched a real-life crime show where skeletonized human remains were found in an extremely remote area. One of the few clues they found was the metal button on a pair of jeans. It had a special insignia similar to how Wrangler puts the W on its button, but it was one none of the detectives ever seen before. Finally, a friend of one of the detectives, an importer of goods recognized it. It came from a denim jeans manufacturer operating only in Asia. Ultimately from that they found a missing Asia woman (a mail order bride murdered by her husband who had ties to that remote area) who only liked the special cut of the jeans this manufacturer used. So she imported jeans from Vietnam to wear. It was because the curve of an Asia person’s bottom is different and that particular manufacture made the seat of the pants for that region of the world. I did not realize the European sizes of shoes were unisex though. Thanks for teaching me something new!

I think my wife is around that number as well. I do not do the high heel inventory that you guys do but knew we had a lot of shoes in the house a few years ago... so I started counting. Between me, my wife and our four daughters living at the house at the time, I counted 404 pairs of shoes between us all. The wife had the most, including having a walk-in closet just for her shoes. It was not big by any means, 4x8 feet that we endearing called "the shoe barn".

Myself, I would like to see the whole shoe size thing change so there is no longer any "women's size/men's size" just a single sizing method that is adhered to by all manufactures. I guess it is no big deal, once you know you wear say a size 10 women's, well... you just know that is what to buy, but it seems just easier to me to have one set size for the same physical dimensions of a shoe. But it is that way with other clothes too. I bought some men's leggings and they fit me perfect, but they had a front flap I disliked, so I bought some women's since they lacked that. From the same company, same style and everything... and the same size hung off me like elephant skin. It is kind of annoying since I like them tight so they fit better under my jeans when out in the cold. In that, I just wished there was one size for clothing too, and not just shoes. But honestly, I think the dress sizes for women work pretty good, but even on that they sort of mess up because the sizes only go in even increments. I often lease my wife saying I cannot find her size... size five. That is because a size six dress hangs loosely off her, but a size four dress is too tight. But I often thought for a lot of things a sizing numbers would work much better for men's clothes then the small, medium, large, extra large sizes that are quite hit or miss.

Yes, you are indeed right, but it is far more than that. A person in high heels has an air of sophistication about them, and when worn well, they look confident, brazen and dominant. But look at any high school prom where the ones wearing high heels often look uncomfortable, unsteady and vulnerable, and the same pair of shoes can give an entirely different look. It is all about how well the shoes are worn and not so much about the shoes (although I do understand quality has a lot to do with high heel wearing confidence). It is why I have so much respect for everyone on here that wears high heels so often, as well as my wife who embraces them. There is a huge commitment to wearing them well. Everyone on here should take pride… in their pride… on that!

I will try and keep that in mind. By the way, fun fact here: did you know it is impossible to tickle yourself? Leggings work really well for me because I am strange in that if my legs are warm, I can tolerate a lot of cold elsewhere. To some degree, not so much my feet as that can be another weak spot, but people are often surprised how little I wear on my top half. Like I almost never wear a jacket instead just wearing a sweatshirt over a T-shirt, and I am fine down to 0 degrees (F). But this is because other people don’t know my legs are protected by leggings, I look like I am wearing just jeans and a sweatshirt, but in reality, my legs are really warm so I’m fine. It is why I never saw the purpose of a vest. ‘It warms your core’, they say, but for me it would serve no purpose except paying for a garment that is half-useful with its sleeves lobbed off. I am surprised that someone has not come up with reflective leggings or a base layer as a way to retain more heat though. I use radiant barrier underneath all my floors; it is basically tin foil on both sides of bubble wrap. It is only a quarter inch thick (6 mm) but retains 95% of heat by breaking the reflective heat loss. I use it as insoles on my boots to keep my feet warmer in the winter. Sadly, it has an R-factor of only 1, but that is a misnomer because of the way the R-factor calculation does not account for various factors of heat loss. (Kind of like how horsepower is a poor way of calculating true power of something). I would think having a reflective base layer would retain even more body heat making a person warmer with no extra weight or bulk being added?

Awwwwww, don't be too hard on yourself. I have found EVERYTHING slows down in the winter. Yes, that might be in wearing high heels, but other things as well. It's not a bad thing. I learned that growing up on a farm. With no field work to do, we could slow down in the winter and enjoy other aspects of life more. Like playing pond hockey or going snowshoeing. I normally go for my walks daily, but with temps below zero and high winds, I have been putting it off. But that is okay, we are on the other side of the equinox and so the days are getting longer, the sun is higher in the sky, in another month things will be vastly different, and February is a very short month.

It is easy to confuse where people are from on a forum but you are thinking of another member of this forum who is from the Midwest. Like you I am from the East Coast as well faithfully watching the waves of the ocean crash into shore endlessly as I write this. But living on an island, there are lots of fisherman so lots of old skiffs and old antique outboards sitting in barns. Sadly, I do not remember the man’s name. I never was good with names anyway and this was back in 1995, so 31 years ago. He was probably 50 back then and may be departed now. I know he had a bout with cancer, was devoted to church, and loved to carve wood. I sold him a whole truckload of Basswood for the endeavor back then. That is about as much as I remember… I said in a previous post that “it typically warms up to snow”, and that might seem odd but it is so true. A lot of times it will be cold, but for a snowstorm jump from 5 degrees to thirty when the storm blows in. Not on this one, it is 2 degrees with a gale blowing and heavy bouts of snow. We are in for a long, hard blow tonight. I hope the power holds out, but we are pretty good in that regard. The wind blows so hard, so often out here that the power company has got the system hardened against wind. I remember one New Years night it was about -20 degrees (f) and blowing 20 mph and the ex-wife and I were out to a dance hall. She was wearing high heels and not something she was used too. Her feet hurt in them and so she took them off, and as we went to go home, she walked from the venue to the car, in -20 degree weather, in a plowed but snowy parking lot in just her pantyhose covered feet. I thought that was pretty tough! I know everyone on this forum would have been wearing their high heels. Was it ever cold that year!

Yeah, it is cold here too. The coldest day so far this winter at negative 6 below zero (F) as I type this, or negative 21 degrees (C). Other than the cold water under the kitchen sink freezing, nothing major to report from the cold. They are saying we are going to get slammed with 20 inches of snow (50 cm), but lately they like to hype things up so we shall see. I don’t expect more than a foot of snow really. But surprisingly it is not going to warm up to snow, staying cold and windy for the duration of the storm. We got our new furnace on Friday so it is nice to no longer be without heat and having to rely on small electric heaters to get by. But despite the new furnace; yes, I do have my leggings on as I type this. It was nice to hear you like antique outboard motors. I once worked with a guy who was the president of the local chapter regarding an antique outboard motor club. I am not sure if they are still active or not, but with so many fishermen here, there are a lot of skiffs. And fishermen… they do not throw anything away. I mean nothing! I bet half these barns here have antique outboard motors in them. They would never sell them, but sadly never do anything with them either.

Sorry, I brought up the sock-boots. I never saw them before. I think they are something my wife would like, so I might surprise her with a pair for Valentine's Day. i respect everyone's opinion of them and I am in no way trying to be argumentative. I just could see where she would like them. But I won't bring them up ever again on here!! 🙂

It is kind of sad how often that happens to innovators of society: they have a wild idea that is outside the mainstream and act on it, and then... it fizzles and dies. Typically right before it is picked up again and goes big by some entity that really had no early stakes in the game. A great example is the McDonald brothers who made meals fast, but it was Kroc who bought them out and took their idea internationally with the McDonald's we know today. I do too, and almost always do when I write on here. If I am home and lounging, I typically have my "soft pants" on, or leggings on, as in they are not jeans like when I work, or work in jeans around the house. In the winter, I am in leggings 100% of the time, as they are under my jeans for warmth, or I am in the house lounging.

Bikinis and weight do not correspond so well because women do not wear bikinis just because of what they reveal. Being guys, most of us have never tried to take off a wet, single piece bathing suit while in a rush to go to the bathroom, but watching any lady over 50, or with some weight issues try it, and it will quickly be ascertained why the bikini is so common to see. But drunk people, young children and leggings: those are the three things that always tell the truth! PS: I think my mom made me wear short-shorts during a summer in the late 70's-early 80's when she decided my sister and I should do track. Don't ask me about the year she decided my sister and I should do gymnastics. I am still traumatized by that.

I like them, and I can see the potential in them, I am just not sure this particular piece (or pieces) I care for. I think it is the tarnished color of them. Being jewelry, I would prefer to see more polished silver or gleaming gold. What exactly is represented? I am not sure: the creativity of people in the world amazes me so it will be interesting to see where jewelry designers take this. But it is nice to see a differing form of jewelry emerging.

I am not sure if this is to anyone's or everyone's tastes, style-wise, but this might work for some with smaller calf sizes? These are not for everyone, I know, but I was curious if anyone has seen them on here. Seems quite an ingenious way to get over-the-knee boots to fit properly. Sorry for the link, but I looked everywhere for the video itself and could not find it. https://pin.it/MwnRzOFLh

I think Go-Go Boots were just a product of their times. In the 1950’s you had McCarthyism here and a push to conform on everything. I mean if you need an example: the flat top haircut? With a bit of age, those in the late 1960’s and 1970’s railed against everything typical. From shag carpets to avocado-colored appliances to strings of beads to use as doors to miniskirts: EVERYTHING was a trial of sorts. A kind of throw everything out there and see what sticks. I see Go-Go Boots as part of that era… and overall effort. Some things that did stick are miniskirts and the bikini but only because they are also practical besides just fashionable. My wife wears a bikini but only because at 52 years old taking off a wet one-piece bathing suit requires human manipulation that borders on being a contortionist! I would never condemn anything of that time as I wish today we had some of that embolden fashion behavior. For many guys on here, you do. (Me, I am more demure unfortunately) The combat boots of the 1990’s were a variation of the Go-Go Boots I think, started about the same time that bellbottoms had a short resurgence. But then so did the resurgence with low budget horror movies that brought onto the screen people flailing in sinking sand. Talk about a cinematic trope straight out of the late 60’s! I think Go-Go Boots are well poised to return to mainstream fashion, just with a slight twist of some sort. What is old is new again after all. But I see them making a return…

I am not sure but I think the youtube I posted was probably spearheaded in some way by Amazon to garner more mantyhose sales? I am sure there is money to be made from such encouragement although that was never my intention. It was merely to show that it seemed to be rising in male wardrobe popularity. But that might be a chicken and an egg sort of situation; That is: which came first? I suspect there was some fashionable men trying to do something new, it was noticed by corporations in retail, and maybe videos made to boost the trend for sales from there? I don’t know: I am not a conspiracy theory type of person, I just know that these sorts of things happen, like engineered obsolescence. My wife would probably allow mantyhose to be worn on cold days for warmth, but not much more than that and nothing that would show while in public. As I said I tried some experiments and I did feel mantyhose was warmer than leggings, but I suspect from the way it wicks moisture and wrapped the lower half from waist to toes. Coupled WITH leggings I suspect it would be a super warm combination without a lot of bulk underneath my work jeans. Climbing a tower on a windy winter day would probably be a great place for that combo. Another experiment I did was with chaffing during exercise. Again, with mantyhose clinging tighter than leggings, it seemed to help without overheating. When I first started walking the 5-7 miles I do per day, I had chaffage issues on my thighs, and it was tried then. It worked, but having lost significant weight since first trying it, I don’t have that issue any more. But I can see men who work out having some benefit from mantyhose. All that being said I think you are right, we are seeing the first stages of it being a unisex thing. I know leggings for men have evolved to that point. Call them leggings or base-layer and they are common to see. I was mowing my lawn in my leggings when my neighbor had an emergency. I ran over to his house and pounded on his door and he came out and he was wearing leggings just like I was.

I have worn leggings for years, but for me it all started in an extremely manly way… My trucker called and said he needed to haul the wood I had cut all winter which was at the top of a hill on a half mile logging road. It was January and -20 below zero (f) and blowing 20 miles per hour. I had a bulldozer but it did not have a cab that I needed to open up the snowed in road with. My wife suggested to stay warm I put on a pair of her leggings to get an extra layer on without bulking up. It worked and I was warm, but darn were they ever comfortable. Up until then I wore sweatpants under my clothes but they were bulky. I even wore a size bigger clothes in winter just to accommodate them. It seemed silly to have different sized clothes from season to season when there was a better way… leggings. Now I have switched to leggings and wear them year a round. In the summer just in lounging around the house, what I call wearing my “soft pants”, or come the end of the day declare, ‘it is soft pants time”. Sometimes I will mow the lawn, go through a drive-in restaurant, or go out to my woodworking shop wearing them, not caring if people see me doing so. But generally I don’t wear them in public.

Without question you know your friend and I do not so I take your word for her tough nails. It was just a thought I had on possibly why that might be so. Honestly, that super cheap seafood place is probably safe. Even here in the Northeast we cater to the Japanese Seafood market a lot. Japanese seafood buyers come dockside and buy their fish and crustaceans. It slows in the winter of course, but being so close to the Grand Banks, the Asian buyers naturally go to where the fish are being brought in, and it is definitely here. A funny, but true story is, up until the 1950’s when refrigeration began, lobster was considered a poor mans food since it could not be salted down and preserved like Cod, Swordfish and Haddock. It was considered so inferior that there is a law stating that they cannot serve lobster to prisoners more than once per week. But here there are a lot of strange laws, like it being a law you cannot have your Christmas decorations up after January 15th. Yep, its okay to celebrate the Christmas season but make darn sure is a season and are not up all year! 😊

It may just be what she eats. Fingernails are made up of a type of protein so if she eats a lot of eggs, fish and dark greens, she may inadvertently be strengthening her fingernails. My wife and I have differing diets and so I eat more protein than her, mostly in the way of red meat, but a lot, lot, lot more seafood than she does. Because of that I notice my hair and nails grow much more quickly than hers seems too. I am certainly NOT slighting your location at all here, but when I lived in Minneapolis for seven years, I was shocked at the few choices in seafood. I realize it is in the middle of the country, but we have trucks leave here every day loaded with seafood. When I asked a restaurant manager about so few choices, he said that they sold so little fish they just kept it off the menu. "Steak and potatoes", he said, "steak and potatoes".

I concur. It is nice to see embolden people with wearing embolden colors like red!

I think one issue with two people conversing with different personality types is that one cannot often understand how the other acts. An example of this is my extremely introverted wife who cannot fathom how I can go up to random people and speak to them. But as I explained to her, me NOT talking to someone is the same as her talking to them. But when someone does say something to her, she often gets caught in overthinking, rumination and basically this closed-loop of rethinking and redoing the conversation over and over in her mind. It often happens in highly intelligent people because they are constantly trying to figure out, “why would anyone say something in that situation?’ In this situation it sounds like the guy saw something and felt compelled to say something. It was moronic granted, but he felt the need to speak up and did. His ego was stroked, he felt good about himself and now it is done and over for him. It probably should be for you as well. I am not sure what “smoked my backside” means exactly. I looked it up on urban dictionary and nothing was found, but it sounded accusatory. I was not there however and seventy percent of human interaction is non-verbal so it is hard for me to know without having tone, facial expressions and posturing giving me further clues to the man’s demeanor. It still sounds to me like he did not approve of your attire or lifestyle and spoke up, but I think that is the end of it. Had he wished to go further, he would have. I would not think any more about it. It’s done, it’s over, and while nothing should have been said at all, there was and is nothing more to be said. A person will drive themselves insane if they wonder if every confrontation could lead to violence. I would not let this interaction change how I lived my lifestyle, but if he is consistently at the gym when you are, I would just change to a different time to avoid any possible confrontation. But I would not think anything more about it. Some personality types just speak their mind… unfortunately.

Algorithms can either be good or bad, but for some reason on youtube I must have touched off one in the wrong way because I am constantly being bombarded by a trend I see starting. Or at least it seems that way. Men in pantyhose, or tights for those in other countries. Talk about changing up a mans typical drab wardrobe. I have no real opinion on the topic. When I first started transmission line work, I was in Montana in the winter of 1998 and it was cold. My foreman’s first words were, “buy pantyhose and wear them as it will keep you warm”. Like me, he was married and a mans-man in every way but openly wore pantyhose when it was cold out. I tried wearing them, and I think they do keep a person warmer, but it was too self-conscious for me. I worried about getting hurt and having to explain to medical professionals why I am wearing pantyhose under my work clothes. I do wear leggings though. They are often called “a base layer” but they are really leggings. My wife hates it, but I am not a front flap kind of guy, just downing the waistband when I need to go to the bathroom, so in order to look like I am wearing pants and not underwear with a flap, I buy the women’s style of base-layer, or leggings really. They are comfortable lounging at home, and keep me warm, although I think pantyhose did a better job of it. Without the flap, they look like black pants and so I can move in and out of the house with some neighbor wondering what I am wearing in semi-public! But it is all over youtube now, a drive to get men to wear pantyhose openly. I have no opinion on the matter except to point it out to people on here for discussion on whether its a new fashion trend they would embrace or detest. https://youtu.be/I1m0yWzI-jI?si=VJKkHfslddHSdGDG

Well, we do work inside of conduit more than you would think. Like the power coming to the island here is not run overhead, although it could be. The distance is not that far from shore to shore. Instead, it is dropped into conduit and run across the bridge that crosses the reach. But for the most part they are slung from poles or towers. The tallest towers in the world are in China at 385 meters or 1235 feet, or about the height of the Sears/Willis tower in Chicago. They need to be that high so they can span a 2 km, or 1.25-mile-wide river. But in the transmission line world, temperature is critical. Affixed solidly between two points, if the load increases, the wires heat up and thus expand… and sag… often times into tree limbs or vegetation. The newer lines have temperature sensors built into the wires along with signaling cable in the center of them so grid operators can know how much sag they are getting from high loads. That was part of the problem during the Great East Coast Blackout of 2003 which killed 100 people. As for your high heeled walk you did. First: you are a man of integrity so I think I speak for all of us when I say there was no need for a validating photo. While we appreciate seeing it by all means, it was not required because if you say you did something, I think all of us know you truly did it. But second of all… in the snow? Wow, are you brazen. Good for you! It is hard to say if you needed to do so with no one seeing you though. I think so many people are so caught up in their own worlds and problems they might not even notice a man walking in the snow in high heels. My case in point, I’ll be driving with the wife and say, “slow down for those deer”, to which she will say, “deer? Where? I don’t see any”. I say this because you would be surprised in what people do not see. Of course I say that with the full knowledge that some blooming idiots would drive into you in being so surprised to see a man walking in high heels in the snow too, paying no attention that they were actually driving!

Wind? Oh my do we have wind, but then we are sitting so far out to sea too. It’s about 15 miles out if you calculate the peninsula, then the first island, and then we are off the second island off that one. Perch a house out on a point and on a hummock of land and talk about the wind blowing. The wind just rips across the bay. In the winter we have gales 2-3 times per week! (Gale: 34-49 mph or 54-78 km per hour winds) Yesterday we had a gale, but today there is just a small craft advisory posted. I will go for my daily walks in heavy wind, but not if it rains. I did that one time in December and stepped on a root I did not see. Wet, I slipped and fell on my right side. It hurt, but I was not hurt too bad but stunned. Of course I had a 2 mile hike out and it was getting dark. I hobbled out in time, but it was VERY dark when I did. As was, the wife called me she was so worried. We are within sight of the Coast Guard so I was not to worried, but still who would want to have to call them? After that I started thinking about my walks with more caution. I always hated to be the “what if” kind of person, but as I got older, well… But walks are important. I sometimes sneer at going for mine, but then I think in way of second order thinking. “If I miss this time, then it will be easier to miss next time”. And I try and call my hiking time as “my power hour”. I am not saying you should or should not go, but for me sometimes I push-through and am glad I did.