The High Heeled Ruminations Of Melrose Plant

[mlroseplant]

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. 

[Shyheels]

Actually he was wearing one other thing, now that I think of it: a red bandana.

[Puffer]

11 hours ago, Shyheels said:

While such a thing as being booked for wearing inappropriate footwear while driving might theoretically be possible - although I sincerely doubt it would hold up in court even if some officious jobsworth of a policemen dreamed up the charge  - I  think the odds of this happening are about the same as being beaned by a baby grand piano falling off a passing meteor.

 

Not nearly as unlikely as you suggest.   Have an accident whilst wearing arguably unsuitable footwear (or clothing) in relation to control of a vehicle and it would very likely be a factor in charges and proceedings.   And in terms of insurance recovery or liability where contributory negligence arises.   Plenty of scope for trouble, and should be easily avoided, although most of us transgress from time to time.

[Shyheels]

What attending policeman is going to take an inventory of your clothes and accessories. And if he/she did (highly unlikely) any conclusion they made would be totally subjective as there is no law on the matter. Given the amount of bureaucracy they face as things are anyway, could you really see even the most power happy badge-flashing jobsworth wanting to make that much extra work for themselves, especially when it is very unlikely to amount to anything in court. And would their superiors let them? Or the crown prosecutor?

They go for low bar convictions, not long shots that have no solid basis in law

[Cali]

Puffer is not talking about conviction or getting a ticket. He is talking about one of lowest forms of life, the 'Ambulance Chasing Lawyer'. And how this might be used in a case determining cause and fault.

[Shyheels]

And how does the ambulance chasing lawyer come to learn if this - unless he’s involved in the wreck itself

[Puffer]

The evidence gathered after an accident will include that relating to a driver's control (or otherwise) of a vehicle, and that could include mode of dress just as much as physical condition, illness, drink/drug influence etc.   I did not have the rapacious lawyer in mind, but he too will be minded to exploit such evidence as may be presented.   The law does not contain specific 'clothing' offences but the Highway Code (notably Rule 97) is always relevant when considering the conduct of a driver/rider.   I rest my case.

[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.

[Bubba136]

2 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

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.

I really like those sandals.  I have a similar pair that I bought a long time ago from Jessica Simson, only the heels aren’t quite that high.  I haven’t worn them yet this summer. I’ll have to dig them out and see if they still fit.  I think I’ll wait until after this storm passes, though.

[mlroseplant]

It seems like every time I run across Jessica Simpson shoes, I look at them. But I've only ever had one pair, and I had really bad luck with them. As in catastrophic failure bad luck. These Miu Miu sandals don't seem like they're going to break, and they have the correct platform to heel height ratio to my eye. To me JS seems to have too much platform and not enough heel on many models.

[mlroseplant]

I have been reassigned. Starting today, I will be on a project which may turn out to be the most boring job I've ever done in my life. I hope I'm wrong about it, but it does not look promising. At least it's close to home.

[Jkrenzer]

What's the job?

[Puffer]

I imagine that even more boring than watching grass grow or paint dry would be observing the flow of electrons through a cable.   But someone has to do it.

[Bubba136]

12 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

I have been reassigned. Starting today, I will be on a project which may turn out to be the most boring job I've ever done in my life. I hope I'm wrong about it, but it does not look promising. At least it's close to home.

You are aware, aren’t you, that supervisors only assigned the most boring jobs to their most capable employees because they have proven over time that they can be trusted to do a good job under any circumstances.  For the most part these tasks require the least effort that is why they are so boring.  Be happy that they pay you the same rate as they would if you had the hardest job.  Go with the flow and enjoy the lighter load while it lasts. 😕

[mlroseplant]

Now that I have actually been to the first day of the job, I have thought of a few jobs that were more boring, but not by much. The job is this: We are to inspect, photograph, and carefully record the condition of somewhere in the neighborhood of 55 underground datacom vaults. These vaults are concrete structures, typically about 3m x 4m, and about 3m high that were placed underground to facilitate the installation and routing of fiber optic cable. This is at a data center owned by a company you've heard of, so naturally all of these cables are critical to their operation.

Because it is an underground installation, access is by manhole cover, which weighs, oh I don't know, at least 60 kg. You wouldn't want to drop it on your toe, lets put it that way. Then we have to lower a "sniffer" down in there, which tests for adequate oxygen levels and some other stuff. We have a special fan which will blast fresh air in there if it's not safe to breathe. Then a guy, attached to a special rig, with which we can pull him up if he goes unconscious, goes down in with a camera and takes a series of pictures inside the vault. After this is complete, we tear down the whole rig and do it all over again at the next vault.

We are hoping to do two vaults per day. We only managed to do one yesterday. But at least I know all of the guys on the crew personally, and don't dislike any of them. Although we plan to rotate tasks, my job yesterday was to stand outside the hole (outside the barricade) and periodically record the readings on the air quality monitoring equipment (the "sniffer"), as required by OSHA regulations. And take care of all the other paperwork/documentation required by our customer. Which is almost comically voluminous, considering we're essentially going into a hole and taking a few pictures. Ok, a lot of pictures.

[Shyheels]

It does sound a bit tedious - on the other hand you could regard it as fairly easy money and if you’re doing two vaults a day, in five or six weeks tops you’ll be done and possibly earned the gratitude of whoever assigned you to this 

[at9]

Not a job to do in high heels!

The first few will be novel. The last few will be sheer purgatory. At least you've got a good crew. The test will be if you're still on speaking terms at the end.

I recently visited some server rooms which had halon fire suppression (not real halon, modern stuff that complies with the Montreal Protocol) but if that blows you need to get out of there damn fast.

Edited August 9 by at9

[mlroseplant]

The job is beginning to gel a little bit. We are getting used to the equipment, getting used to the people we are working for (the customer), and we are getting used to pumping a lot of water! Not necessarily due to the new job, I can tell you I'm not going to make my walking quota this month. I'm not going to beat myself up about it either.

Two of the guys on my crew run marathons, and there's a third guy who is there occasionally who also runs marathons. They spend a lot of time talking about running shoes. I mean, more than I thought was possible. Perhaps now I understand how other people feel about me, talking about shoes.

[mlroseplant]

It's been a while since I've snapped a picture, and I've got some new sandals to show off, Calvin Klein Fia. Our church choir had a little get together at a restaurant last night, and during the dinner, it was announced that we have at last found a new music director. That is very good news, because I'm not taking over the job, I just don't have the time or the energy.

I have never had much luck with thong sandals lasting very long, so I went nuts and bought four pairs, hoping that among four of them, I would have something for at least a couple of years. This is the first pair to arrive. Shorts are by Talbots, and are called "Perfect Shorts." They're made of a very nice, dressier material, and would in fact be perfect were they a couple of inches shorter.

[Jkrenzer]

I struggle with thongs, just don't like the between the toes deal.

Those look good on you. Looking forward to seeing the others. Hope they hold up as you mentioned. 

[mlroseplant]

I had trouble with that also, but it's something that I forced myself to get used to for the sake of style. Part of it is psychological, part of it is physical. Kind of like learning to play the guitar. Yeah, your fingers are going to hurt for a while.

[Bubba136]

2 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

I had trouble with that also, but it's something that I forced myself to get used to for the sake of style. Part of it is psychological, part of it is physical. Kind of like learning to play the guitar. Yeah, your fingers are going to hurt for a while.

Idiosyncrasies.  Funny how I grew to hate the between the toe wearing of the shower shoes during my aviation cadet program days to a point that I can’t stand to wear them today but my wife chose to wear different styles quite frequently and never with a problem.  Styles like mlroseplant is wearing are almost as popular around here this summer as crocks.  Even the dresser styles, flats and with wedge heels that are even worn to church. (But then, crocks are worn in the same manner by both men and women, even too church).

[Shyheels]

Same as adapting to wearing heels ...

[mlroseplant]

I definitely went through the thong learning curve late in life. Come to think of it, I don't think I even owned a pair of sandals of any type until I was 40. Which is odd, considering that I'm Mr. Sandal today. I'm probably making up for lost time.

[Shyheels]

That is late in life! I’m considerably older than you and was wearing thing at least 50 years ago - although now of course I wear almost nothing but boots and do not even own a pair of sandals!

[mlroseplant]

I went pretty casual (for me) to church yesterday. Part of the impetus for this was the fact that I thought I had overtaxed my right Achilles tendon last week, and I wanted to wear something a little bit lower, so as not to injure myself further. However, I have neglected these cute BCBGeneration wedges since I bought them, I think this is only the second time I've ever worn them, so it was about time anyhow. Despite the fact that we hadn't practiced nearly enough, Mickey and I were "on" yesterday. Sometimes, you get lucky and have those days.

[Shyheels]

A nice look, and certainly far dressier than my bargee-casual appearance at a church service a couple of Sundays ago, after a two mile walk down a muddy towpath. 

[Bubba136]

On 8/25/2024 at 5:43 AM, mlroseplant said:

I definitely went through the thong learning curve late in life. Come to think of it, I don't think I even owned a pair of sandals of any type until I was 40. Which is odd, considering that I'm Mr. Sandal today. I'm probably making up for lost time.

If you stood by your pick up you would disappear from the belt to your feet.🫣

[mlroseplant]

I had to take the day off work yesterday because my younger son had to have his wisdom teeth extracted, and I wanted to personally make sure he was ok after the procedure, having been through it myself, albeit nearly 40 years ago. Dentistry has come a long way in that time, but it is not always pain free. My son was a trooper, and did just fine. It will take a few days before he's back to doing his normal thing, though.

I made the conscious decision to wear my normal clothes to the dentist office, which is not the same dentist I go to, so they've never had the pleasure of viewing my footwear up in the chair. I sat in the waiting room for over an hour, and I only got a bit of a sideways glance from an older couple during this time. I even saw my neighbor while I was in there, but he is already indoctrinated into the life of Melrose.

I pulled out a pair of sandals I hadn't worn in a while, my BCBGeneration Poland. I've had these for quite a while, but I don't wear them often, and I'm not really sure why. Probably because I gravitate toward mules when I'm picking out something, and these obviously are not.

[Jkrenzer]

On 8/29/2024 at 6:48 AM, mlroseplant said:

Missed this until now.  Great casual look. Can't remember last time I had shorts that short. Heels are too notch, I have the same problem. I have so many that I occasionally forget to wear ones I love for a while.