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The High Heeled Ruminations Of Melrose Plant


mlroseplant

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23 hours ago, Jkrenzer said:

Excellent look. You have the highest heels at the service?

You are an elder at church, how large is the congregation?

Just notice you have some rot on the lower edge of your siding, looks like a summer project.

Eight years ago, when my heels were lower, and the general style of heels was higher, there were a few ladies who occasionally wore higher heels than me. Today, it is not even close.

For a small town, it is a pretty good sized church. Back in the day, membership exceeded 1,000, and you'd get maybe 250 to 300 on a typical Sunday among three services. Today, I'm guessing it isn't even half that, and that's pre-pandemic. We do not know what the future will bring. I know we've lost some people, but we might also gain some people. You never know. Everybody knows mainline protestant churches are slowly dying, pandemic or no pandemic.

That's been a planned summer project for several years, and you see the result! 😆😆😆

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5 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

Back in the day, membership exceeded 1,000, and you'd get maybe 250 to 300 on a typical Sunday among three services. Today, I'm guessing it isn't even half that, and that's pre-pandemic.

Yeah.  Our church is suffering the same issue.  Just got a new settled pastor and we're hoping that gets things moving in a better direction.

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As mentioned by many of us, seeing a lady in heels is pretty much a rare sight these days.  Therefore Saturday morning was a rare treat, at the local golf course of all places (they do have many functions there, weddings, wedding and baby showers, etc.)  As I was loading up my clubs into my cart, I noticed a young lady about eight cars down the aisle unloading large gift packages from her trunk.  She had on a very nice dress, black nylons, and a pair of about 4" single sole instep strap heels.  A sight for sore eyes.  She was struggling some with large packages and I thought about going to see if she needed help but I was waiting for another golfer so I couldn't just take off.  Anyway, she managed to get both packages in her arms and close the trunk.  I watched her walk away and her grace in those heels was stunning.  Her stride was so smooth and confident.  Obviously an experienced high heel lady.  She sure made my day!

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Nice to hear that you saw a lady in heels. On Easter Sunday, I noticed a lot of the ladies in heels in church and shopping at the supermarket after. I would venture to guess that more then 50-60% of the ladies were in heels and dressed in their Easter finery. The church was packed considering the max of 50% capacity for Covid rules. Our church holds more than 1,000 people and there was at least 500 there so again I'm guessing maybe 200 or more women in heels. I probably was the only guy wearing heels, a pair of Naturalizer pumps, "Whitney Black Brocade" black with gold, red and blue trim. They have 3-1/2" chunky heels, which is a standard heel height for me. They went great with my natural color suit coat and tan pants, turquoise color dress shirt and co-ordinated tie, I did get a couple of compliments on my ensemble from the ladies.

Happy Heeling,

bluejay

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Yes, but I refuse to apologize....lol

12 hours ago, bluejay said:

On Easter Sunday, I noticed a lot of the ladies in heels in church and shopping at the supermarket after.

While our church is much, much smaller, the only person wearing a shoe that I would consider as being a high heel was the pastor in a 3+ inch stiletto pump.  Maybe two others with a 2" heel, one a block heel on a younger lady and one with a narrower heel but a style that I see as being targeted to the more elderly population.  I thought maybe Easter Sunday would bring out a few more heels, but no such luck, young or old.

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On 4/13/2021 at 11:03 PM, bluejay said:

Nice to hear that you saw a lady in heels. On Easter Sunday, I noticed a lot of the ladies in heels in church and shopping at the supermarket after. I would venture to guess that more then 50-60% of the ladies were in heels and dressed in their Easter finery. The church was packed considering the max of 50% capacity for Covid rules. Our church holds more than 1,000 people and there was at least 500 there so again I'm guessing maybe 200 or more women in heels. I probably was the only guy wearing heels, a pair of Naturalizer pumps, "Whitney Black Brocade" black with gold, red and blue trim. They have 3-1/2" chunky heels, which is a standard heel height for me. They went great with my natural color suit coat and tan pants, turquoise color dress shirt and co-ordinated tie, I did get a couple of compliments on my ensemble from the ladies.

Happy Heeling,

bluejay

Since I was playing in the band on Easter Sunday, it is impossible for me to estimate how many women were wearing heels. We had a bigger turnout than I would have expected, which is good. From what I saw walking on the street after the service while I was loading my instrument and equipment into my car, there were quite a few wedges, quite a few block heels in the sub-3" range, and a frightful number of espadrille-style flatforms! I did not personally witness anybody in what I would consider a proper high heeled shoe. If I were to relax my definition a little bit, I could probably get the numbers up to something that's not so depressing. I thought the girls all looked rather nice, except for the fact that their shoes were too low. 😛

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4 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

I thought the girls all looked rather nice, except for the fact that their shoes were too low. 😛

Yeah.  I had hopes that the beautiful weather we had that day and the loosening of Covid restrictions might result in some ladies digging out their real heels.  Alas, it was not to be in my suburban Chicago location.  I've seen reports that heels are selling well again, but I'm sure not seeing that in practice.

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Since I don't really have anything going on this week that is interesting to talk about, other than getting my second Moderna jab on Sunday, I will keep on the subject of church and heels. Last Sunday was confirmation Sunday, where youth who wish to join the church and who have gone through the better part of a year's worth of classes are confirmed as members of the United Methodist Church. This is typically in 8th grade, or 13-14 years old, more or less.

Usually there are 15-25 new confirmands each year, depending on the size of the class. This year we had six, which is a little worrisome, but it's been such an unusual year, I guess we can't really put too much emphasis on that isolated statistic. There were 5 girls, 1 boy. Just like normal, the girls looked great, the boy looked like crap. No, that's unfair, he didn't look like crap at all, but when a boy puts on an actual button down shirt, that now counts as getting dressed up. The girls were all wearing cotton, sort of unstructured dresses which hit about mid-thigh. One girl wore a black dress with knee high riding boots in this style, the rest wore white dresses with flat sandals. I wouldn't necessarily expect heels in 8th grade, but not even a hint of a heel in the bunch. What struck me is how similar they all looked. The same style dresses, virtually the same hairstyle on all of them. I guess kids really do create their own uniforms if uniforms are not provided. As my youngest is in 6th grade, I guess I'll get to observe stuff like this more and more in the near future.

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I'm trying hard to remember my confirmation class from like 1966 I believe.  While all of the girls definitely wore dresses, I think only one or two had heels.  But every one of the boys wore a suit and tie.  I think the world was a nicer, much more well mannered, place back then.  I wore a coat and tie to church Easter sunday, and I have to say that is the only time this year that I have done so.  I'd be happy to go back to the days when ladies in dresses and men in coat and tie as expected dress in church.  

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1 minute ago, RonC said:

  I'd be happy to go back to the days when ladies in dresses and men in coat and tie as expected dress in church.  

Not that i don't like better dressing at places like church, in those days even Melrose wouldn't be caight dead in heels.

I'm fine with how things are. At my Catholic church growing up, religious classes were held on wed evenings, us kids dressed like public school, cords and collared but not button down shirts. Girls, typically pants and blouses. Religious classes ended after confirmation. 

I always had to explain to my "born again friends" that confirmation was your approving of your faith and baptism when old enough to know better. Of course, had the best co-ed strip poker party on a retreat, priests and nuns downstairs.

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18 hours ago, Jkrenzer said:

Not that i don't like better dressing at places like church, in those days even Melrose wouldn't be caight dead in heels.

I'm fine with how things are. At my Catholic church growing up, religious classes were held on wed evenings, us kids dressed like public school, cords and collared but not button down shirts. Girls, typically pants and blouses. Religious classes ended after confirmation. 

I always had to explain to my "born again friends" that confirmation was your approving of your faith and baptism when old enough to know better. Of course, had the best co-ed strip poker party on a retreat, priests and nuns downstairs.

There is a lot to be said for the modern day, and there is a lot to be criticized about the modern day. And thus has it ever been. I may be making this up, but I seem to recall that archaeologists unearthed some scroll from ancient Egypt which read something to the effect of, "The younger generation is going to the dogs." It's absolutely true that there are some things that are pretty messed up today, but something that isn't messed up is that I can go to church wearing high heels now, whereas back in the day when men wore suits to church every time, it would have been truly scandalous. I am imagining walking down the street with groups of children following me, yelling and taunting. (Involuntary shudder)

My younger son had his first solo contest playing the tuba. "Contest" is probably not really the correct word for what actually took place, but that's what they called it. From the looks of things, most of the band kids participated in it, and the kids were told to wear concert appropriate clothing for their brief individual performances. I must admit that my son is exactly like the rest of the kids we criticize. He looks like crap 99% of the time, and my wife is of absolutely no help when it comes to rectifying the situation. Despite being rushed to clean up after I came home from work, I managed to get him in a shirt and tie at least. Luckily, he is now big enough that he can wear my shirts.

When we got to the school, there were varying degrees of interpretation of what is "concert dress," as you can imagine. As expected, the girls tended to looked quite a bit more polished than the boys. I didn't have time to observe a lot, because I was trying to get Mickey and his 25 pound tuba to where they needed to be, but I did see one girl in the ubiquitous white cotton dress wearing the silver shoes pictured below, or something very, very close. So there is at least one 12 year old girl left in this country who evidently aspires to wear heels.

SilverBlockHeel.jpg

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I have that Naturalizer sandal in black, the style name is "Vera."  Wonderful sandal, the heel is a manageable 2 1/2 inches, very comfortable and fun to wear.  I like the minimalist/simple ankle strap style.  Would be a classy sandal to wear to a concert.  

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"Why should girls have all the fun!!"

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Today, I'm going to share some information about shoe durability. Up to now, my most durable shoes had been my Söfft "Belicia" sandals, in which I walked a total of 107.5 miles, or about 173 km. I had to throw them away after that, because the strappy leather pieces had become so stretched out that not only did they look quite unsightly, but they just didn't fit well anymore. Among other things, my little toes would stick outside the straps, and we can't have THAT. Still, 107 miles on a pair of heeled sandals, AND.  .  . AND on the original, out-of-the-factory heels to boot. I've never seen anything like it before or since. That was back in June of 2016. I'd had the sandals for approximately 3 years.

Last night I broke that record, in my Nine West "Sizzle" oxfords. Sizzle. What a dumb name, but that's what they're called. I've had these shoes for over 8 years, and they're been featured in this thread and many oxford threads a number of times before. While they have outlasted the Söfft sandals, They've been through three sets of heels in the process. The factory set lasted 21.2 miles, and the first replacements lasted 42.1 miles. The set that is on there now has outlasted the first replacement set and looks to have a few more miles left in it.

As a practical matter, the shoes probably have way more than 110 miles on them, because I only count recorded walks in my total. All of the trips to the grocery store or the shopping mall or church are not included. That would be a little bit weird if I did include such incidental trips, don't you think? That is probably the reason why the second set of replacement heel tips seems to have outlasted the first by a substantial margin. The first set no doubt had a lot more unrecorded miles on it. I don't wear the shoes a whole lot except in the coldest months of winter, but I used to wear them a lot more just to go out places than I do today. When I realized that they were within spitting distance of having the record, I've purposefully worn them for almost every walk lately, putting 25 miles on them in about the last 30 days.

Put some polish on them, and they still look like brand new, unlike the poor Belicia sandals by the time they got to this stage of their lives. They have 4 3/4" heels with a 3/4" platform, so they are neither very low nor very high. They are a good training shoe for a couple of reasons. Number One is because they are comfortable. Truth to tell, they are a 1/2 size too big for me, so I always wear them with the same socks I would wear for work, a wool blend type hiking sock. This is perhaps the secret to overall comfort compared to wearing shoes that require thinner socks. Second, they are high enough to get the benefit of working your high heeled muscles quite effectively, while at the same time giving aerobic benefits as well, because they are low enough that you can move along at a pretty good clip while you're doing your walking.

Pictured below is a very recent walk in said shoes. I really need to learn how to not look annoyed in my photos. I am obviously not cut out to be a TikTok girl.

Sizzle110mi.jpg

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I did have one pair of oxfords with a thicker heel of about 3 inches.  They were the most comfortable heels I've had as they were of sufficient width, and I think the lace up feature of oxfords does provide extra opportunity for comfort as it does create a "customizable" fit.  That, combined with the thicker socks you wear with those, I think makes for a better overall fit with less slippage of the foot within the shoe.

Btw, I don't think you look annoyed.  More like bemused...lol.

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5 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

You've no idea how many carrots I've had to peel in the last week. I'm definitely annoyed. 😆

Don't you have a son that needs to learn his mother's business? Have him start with the carrots.

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12 hours ago, Bubba136 said:

Carrots?  Better than onions!

I did onions too, and that's ok. As long as I never have to chop cabbage ever again. For some reason I hate that particular operation, and besides that, I evidently can't do it right anyhow. I suppose there is sometimes value in being incompetent. In much the same way that you never, EVER want to admit to anybody that you know how to finish concrete.

The Big farmer's market starts May 6. My wife, bless her heart, is shooting for the stars with sales expectations. She has rolled over 3,000 egg rolls in the past 10 days or so, and that number continues to climb, until we run out of space in our 3 (!) deep freezers. Here is one about 2/3 of the way full.

EggRollsFreezer.jpg

Edited by mlroseplant
Department of Redundancy Dept.
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1 hour ago, mlroseplant said:

I did onions too, and that's ok. As long as I never have to chop cabbage ever again. For some reason I hate that particular operation, and besides that, I evidently can't do it right anyhow. I suppose there is sometimes value in being incompetent. In much the same way that you never, EVER want to admit to anybody that you know how to finish concrete.

The Big farmer's market starts May 6. My wife, bless her heart, is shooting for the stars with sales expectations. She has rolled over 3,000 egg rolls in the past 10 days or so, and that number continues to climb, until we run out of space in our 3 (!) deep freezers. Here is one about 2/3 of the way full.

EggRollsFreezer.jpg

Get repetitive pain chopping up so much? I once diced up enough pears to prepare 4 - 6 gallon wine mashes. Pears are as hard as apples at that stage. Though my elbow and wrist were finished after that.

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7 hours ago, Jkrenzer said:

Get repetitive pain chopping up so much? I once diced up enough pears to prepare 4 - 6 gallon wine mashes. Pears are as hard as apples at that stage. Though my elbow and wrist were finished after that.

Were you wearing HIGH YIELD shoes during that task?

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21 hours ago, Jkrenzer said:

Get repetitive pain chopping up so much? I once diced up enough pears to prepare 4 - 6 gallon wine mashes. Pears are as hard as apples at that stage. Though my elbow and wrist were finished after that.

Luckily, the equipment she currently has limits the amount of carrots that need to be peeled at one time to around 15 lbs. Depending on the recipe (she makes about a half dozen different varieties, plus crab rangoons), that will go with several pounds of onions and about 8 heads of cabbage. This is not really enough at once to cause much in the way of repetitive stress injuries, but trying to get the water out of the cabbage is another story. We used to do it simply by squeezing it manually. This worked fine when she was making them for our personal consumption, but became unacceptable when she started selling several dozen a week. After much experimentation, the solution turned out to be one of those swimsuit dryer things that spin around very rapidly. It works unbelievably well, and it doesn't hurt your hands at all!

Turning back to the subject of chopping stuff up on a countertop, I don't like to wear much of a heel if I have a lot of things to prepare, because it puts me at an uncomfortable height ergonomically. I can see why actual tall people sometimes have their kitchen counters made higher than standard, if they plan to stay in that house for a very long time. Of course when preparing normal supper or whatever, it doesn't matter much, and I normally wear short heels in the kitchen. The one exception is kneading bread dough. In that case, it's an advantage to wear very high heels to get a better angle for mashing.

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It is fast coming up on my 9th anniversary of public heel wearing. I'm not sure of the exact date, but it was sometime in the first part of May 2012. In the year after that, I spent a lot of time pounding the pavement at night (not a practice I recommend for everyone) learning how to walk in heels. In retrospect, it has taken me nearly 9 years to really accomplish this, and evidently I still have my limits.

In an attempt to raise those limits, I decided this morning to walk 5 miles in heels, or 8 km. It is not the first time I have done this, in fact it's the third time, but it's been quite a while. It was thoroughly enjoyable, except for the last mile, but that was only because I had to pee so badly that it ruined the whole experience. I did make it home without any "accidents," even at my advanced age. If I ever do this in the morning again, I will delay my coffee until after I am back home.

I finished my long walk with no ill effects, and if I can find the time slot to do so, I hope to repeat this activity again soon. Pictured below are the shoes I wore on the walk, drying out on my Peet shoe dryer, which is normally reserved for work boots and such.

ShoeDryerSizzle.jpg

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On 4/25/2021 at 3:44 PM, RonC said:

I don't think I could walk five miles any longer period, much less in heels such as those.  Impressive!

It wasn't something that you just do on a whim. If you scroll back a few pages, you can see that the first couple of weeks of March I was complaining about not being able to do more than a mile without my ankle complaining. In the weeks after that, I logged a lot of 2-3 mile walks. Oddly enough, on the morning of the 5 miler, I was actually a little nervous for reasons I can't explain. Perhaps it was the memory of the last time I attempted a 5 miler when my shoe failed me two miles from home. No such drama this time.

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Such undertakings (long walks and long periods of standing) emphasize the importance of having and wearing well made and properly fitting shoes.  You can’t achieve walking long distances or wear bad fitting footwear if you are contemplating spending a lot of time standing comfortably in high heels.  A lesson that I learned from my mother. 

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Being mentally comfortable in your own mind is the key to wearing heels in public.

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On 4/28/2021 at 9:32 PM, Bubba136 said:

Such undertakings (long walks and long periods of standing) emphasize the importance of having and wearing well made and properly fitting shoes.  You can’t achieve walking long distances or wear bad fitting footwear if you are contemplating spending a lot of time standing comfortably in high heels.  A lesson that I learned from my mother. 

Ain't that the truth! And even then, sometimes your best friends will come back and bite you. It just happened to me last week. Shoes I've owned and loved for years wore a hole in the side of my foot. It was very disappointing.

My mother also loved heels in her younger days, but was never a regular, all day wearer. So my lessons were learned either on my own or from Jenny's old website.

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