CrushedVamp

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.

Yes, I understand. It surprises me too how a Pinterest Algorithm can set myself up to be bombarded with high heel wearing depictions. It is as if the whole world wears high heels and we have not seen that since the 1950’s and 1980’s. Yet we know the truth, but that is just the world today. No one actually does the things they claim they know so much about. Not to get into a tirade railing against “youtube influencers”… which I think is a misnomer because really, who the heck are they truly influencing? But I digress. It just seems so many people have an opinion on something that they never actually engage in… like having many depictions of how to choose comfortable high heels when no one is wearing them. I think it is why I come back to this site so often: most members on here are authentic. I appreciate and respect that.

Oh, how I can relate! I got a job when I first moved to the island, but I realized quickly taking it was a mistake. We were also doing a lot of work on two houses that were 2-1/2 hours apart from one another. Between the three, something had to give, so I gave up the job. It’s been nice getting so much done around the island house; I put in a new kitchen floor yesterday just as an example, but we are also hemorrhaging money. But now that I am ready to find another job now that things are stabilizing on the home front, I am finding there are slim-pickings out there. But, part of that is island life. Fishing is seasonal and so a lot of people are looking for winter jobs right now. Of course, they do not say they are going back to fishing in the spring to these employers, so it leaves me competing with a lot of other people even though I would be full-time. The other bad thing: our furnace cracked its heat exchanger which is a non-repairable part. That means we have not had heat for several days and have six days to go until they install a new one. That was $6000 which had to be paid up front. But it is also 13 degrees (-10 degrees C), so while not overly cold outside, it is still cold enough to want to have heat in the house. We got electric heaters going, but it’s not really working the best. I hasten to wish my life along, but Friday cannot come fast enough for me! That being said, I am sorry to hear you were laid-off from your job. Bitter-sweet by the sounds, but I hope the length of your work-departure is only as long as you want it to last. Best wishes to you @mlroseplant

Oh, I was the Logger who saved Little Red Riding Hood from the Big Bad Wolf!

I am the opposite in that without a radio on, I am less distracted. On especially long rides, with the radio off I can think through the plot problems, characterization tidbits, and plot twists on my latest novels that I write. I have even noticed when I do lots of long car rides, my novels get done in even shorter times because I have had more time to think them through. Typically a 90,000 word novel takes me four months to write, but with a lot of long car rides, I can finish one in three months instead. But that to me is the issue with noise pollution such as having music on all the time and everywhere: people do not have time to think. And what is wrong with that? One guy at work told me, “I always have a sound track running through my head”, to which I had to reply, “are you that scared of your own thoughts where you have to have something someone else came up with, occupying your mind? How sad! “Think for yourself man. Think for yourself, don’t just be fed other people's creations”. A look at music today and you see such a decline in quality. The classical composures had to have the brass section, the string section, the solo performers and the chorus all come in at the right time and intensity. That took amazing skill. And in one study where they took the number of words to a song and found that in the 1970’s there was something like 400 different words per song, whereas today they might only have forty words. The reason? They are repeated to a synthesizer. Whether you like their music or not, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seiger and the Eagles told stories with their songs which was very creative which is NOT what we are seeing today.

That is too hard to Handle

I fully understand what your situation was @mlroseplant, especially in light of the photo being for an entirely different reason than showing the high heels you happened to be wearing. I must say, most of your photos of you in heels come out really, really well. Your pictures often show your great heels, but also your overall outfit well with quality photos most of the time on here. But photography is interesting… sometimes taking lots of time in setting up the perfect photo works really well and a stunning photo is made, and sometimes just turning around and snapping a quick picture captures the moment in time just perfectly. Of course, the opposite is true as well and especially so for candid photos, there are twenty poor ones taken for every great photo made. I tend to like candid photos. It can be fun to set up the camera for the perfect shot, but also fun when stunning pictures come from the spur of the moment. I have plenty of examples of quick shots being surprisingly stunning, but being a high heel site, my wife and I were doing a themed photoshoot, and while most of the pictures were taken with her painstaking posed, as she sat on a bridge for a break, I saw her seated, turned around and snapped a quick picture. It came out extremely well, really the best picture of the seventy or so we had set up that day. So, it just shows you never know, some of the best pictures cannot be planned. This is a photo of her on the bridge with some high heel knee boots.

I say the following with respect to all performing arts, because it is not that we don't see the value of music, but just as some people do not care for plays, or for reading, or whatever: my wife and I; we don't like music. I thought I was the only one until I met her. But get in our cars and the radios are off. In fact, it wouldn't bother us if they had no radios at all. And we go to church late just so we can miss the music and just catch the sermons. We started doing that after going one Sunday and the music team prayed specifically for my wife and I, "for those here who have hardened hearts." Nope, not hardened hearts at all, we just don't like music. But we don't like television either. We have no TV's in the house but instead have wide screen bookshelves!! The problem with music is that people just assume you need music 24/7 and I like to be alone with my thoughts. I do not need Walmart Radio when I am grocery shopping. Or have music when I fill up the gas tank of my car. Or have music as a background as I am placed on hold on a phone call. And the worst thing is, someone has chosen what they think I want to listen for music. In the area I live, they have a strong penchant for American Country music for some reason which I am not the biggest fan of shall we say... But I have respect for those with musical ability even if I do not like it. Just as I appreciate the talent of those who do sculptures although my taste for the visual arts is more for classical paintings, or the performing arts for live theatre. And to play multiple instruments means the person has immense musical talent.

I was not debating you on that in any way. I saw the placard (which is what I have been calling them as well) and thought I would post it for everyone's thoughts. I would think the continental, typical stiletto, and the boulevard type of heel, comfort level would depend upon your gait. If you slump forward and put most of your weight forward; or the reverse and tend to keep your weight back, etc would have more to do with how comfortable a pair of high heels are then just heel pitch. It's why I think my wife finds certain pairs more comfortable than others. Because of how she walks, how she carries herself and how the shoes are constructed; it just works for her. You could put on the same heels and they could be extremely painful, but that is just my opinion. I back it up with ZERO knowledge.

Indeed, that type of high heel does have a name: a Continental high heel shape I believe. Incidentally, if the high heel bulges backward in a rounded shape, while rare to see, it is called a Boulevard type of high heel shape. I believe the technical name for this angle is called "Heel Pitch", but I am no high heel expert by any means, just a term I ran across once. Again… and huge disclaimer here, I just found this image on Pinterest and do not lay claim to what it depicts, nor do I know what it says in Russian, but found this depiction nonetheless. I present it her only to get people’s opinions on what it says. I am generally rather dismissive of ANY statement when they use absolute words like “you always”, or “you never”, or in this situation, “this shoe is not for you if…” Well, hold on. Human physique is incredibly varied so statements like that immediately make me question them.