The High Heeled Ruminations Of Melrose Plant

[Shyheels]

Quite a nice collection. I remember when wooden soled clogs were huge during my university days in the mid 70s

[Cali]

I like my wooden heels as well.

[mlroseplant]

Here are some pictures showing only my "expensive" wooden heels. Not that I paid anywhere near retail for any of them, but somehow I've got 'em. 2 pair of D&G, 2 pair of Miu Miu, 1 pair Alaia, and 1 pair Prada. The ones I've worn the most by far are the Miu Mius (both pair). I believe Miu Miu is Prada's cheap line, "cheap" being a relative term. For some reason, every pair of Miu Miu I own works with my feet perfectly. Too bad that they're so expensive to buy in the real world, and that 95% of Miu Mius are butt ugly.

My least favorite out the half dozen are the D & Gs. One pair I've never worn out because I feel they're too girly. Or at least I did when I purchased them. I don't know if that would bother me anymore. Combine that with the fact that they are super obnoxiously loud, and they thus far have not been my choice, ever. The other pair of D & G (the bluejean denim ones) is super high and has a minimalist strap to hold them on. At first blush, these would seem like good things, and perhaps they are. The problem is that the padding on these sandals is very thick and squidgy. This makes them somewhat awkward to walk in. I feel it would be much better if one's feet rested directly upon the bare wood, as God intended.

The Pradas are super high and super clunky, but easy to live with. I haven't worn them a lot because of their looks, but they don't seem to suffer from any design defects functionally.

Which brings us to the last pair, the Alaia sandals. I paid quite a bit of money for them, sight unseen and used. It turned out to be a lucky gamble, but they have not become the staple of my summer wardrobe that I had thought. For one thing, they're quite steep, and I have been slacking for the last few years. I might have to give them another chance now that I've gotten myself back in shape again this year, high heel-wise. The other thing is that the way my right little toe hits the strap causes some issues that I will not explain in detail now. It just goes to show you, things that seem ideal sometimes turn out to be less so, and vice versa.

[mlroseplant]

I have put a pause on buying any new shoes for a while. I now have 100+ pairs, and I have run out of storage room. To that end, I decided that I needed to start wearing the shoes that I have, rather than keep wearing the half dozen favorites over and over again. I broke out the Prada mules, which have always been comfortable, but not comfortable for me personally, because I always feel slightly ridiculous when I wear them--they are huge! Six inch heel, 1 1/2 inch platform, and nothing delicate about them. Anyhow, here they are, in all their huge glory, and yes, I am wearing a bandaid, or sticking plaster, because a mile and a half into my walk, these otherwise benign shoes decided to bite me back.

[Shyheels]

Very nice sandals! Big, as you say, but with nice cleans lines. They look fun.

[Cali]

I love wearing my wooden chucky heels  Their sound is so fun.

[HappyinHeels]

mlroseplant, 

I’m not surprised you were running out of room as I remember your heels neatly arranged in a small basement. Those heels look fantastic on you and is definitely something I would wear. The bottom reminds me of my Jessica Simpson “Wenda” sandals which are 5.6” high and make some noise in the pavement just like yours. I have worn them with jeans quite often a few times while shopping and it’s a thrill interacting with people who like my sandals. When you wear something like that you gotta own it. Pound the Iowa pavement with those heels my friend. HappyinHeels 

[mlroseplant]

On 7/30/2023 at 11:01 PM, HappyinHeels said:

mlroseplant, 

I’m not surprised you were running out of room as I remember your heels neatly arranged in a small basement. Those heels look fantastic on you and is definitely something I would wear. The bottom reminds me of my Jessica Simpson “Wenda” sandals which are 5.6” high and make some noise in the pavement just like yours. I have worn them with jeans quite often a few times while shopping and it’s a thrill interacting with people who like my sandals. When you wear something like that you gotta own it. Pound the Iowa pavement with those heels my friend. HappyinHeels 

I almost have it back under control. I built a couple more shelves, but I need to build yet another couple more, and do some purging.

I do think those big 'ol Pradas look better when they're actually on than they are sitting on the shelf. I might even try them for a farmer's market night. I think they'd do ok. My wife basically doesn't say anything anymore. For one thing, she has figured out that it doesn't seem to hurt sales one little bit.

[mlroseplant]

Today I will post a random musing, having nothing to do with high heels. As a reasonable man, I know that wasps are important critters in this world, but I hate those little f**kers. I was helping my 14 year old the other day (he has a small lawn care business), and I got into a wasp nest somehow. I'm not allergic, but every place I got stung itches like crazy still, several days later. I don't mow grass in high heels. Sorry to disappoint.

Edited August 3, 2023 by mlroseplant

[Cali]

Baking soda.  Sounds almost as much fun as surfing into jellyfish.

[mlroseplant]

10 hours ago, Cali said:

Baking soda.  Sounds almost as much fun as surfing into jellyfish.

Hey thanks! I hadn't thought of that, though it now occurs to me that my grandfather made some sort of a poultice out of baking soda (and maybe other ingredients, too) when I had accidentally kneeled on an anthill as a kid. Everybody at work said Benadryl. For some reason I cannot tolerate Benadryl, but I bet topical baking soda will be just fine.

[Cali]

I make a paste with the baking soda and dab it on.

[mlroseplant]

Once again, it is now time to talk about heel top lifts, or tips, or caps, or whatever you want to call them. I have noticed that over the past year mine are lasting significantly longer than they used to. And by significantly, I mean twice as long or better.

Since I've been going to the same cobbler for a decade, we can eliminate that variable from the explanation. As further proof of this, I have two examples of stock heels that have lasted significantly longer than the first pair (when I have bought duplicate shoes).

Shown in the instant case with pictorial evidence, I got the stock heels on my BCBGirls "Bonny" sandals (pair No. 3) to last for 42.7 miles before they completely disintegrated, vs. 21.0 miles on the previous pair. Typically I would get about 40 miles out of replacement Vibram heels on this same shoe.

Another example is my True Religion mules, which are now my second most durable shoes ever, with 121 miles on the clock. The last time I had these reheeled, in September of 2022, I got 44.8 miles out of the previous Vibram heel caps. Now, less than a year later, I have logged 69.7 miles on the new Vibram heel caps, and they are still not all the way worn out.

My cobbler is not really happy about this, but it has nothing to do with his work, whether good or shoddy. It has everything, I believe, to do with my recently refined style of walking. It is difficult to change the way one does something as fundamental as walking, and I'm still working on it, but evidently something has happened. I've noticed that even the heels on my work boots are lasting way longer than they did before.

I cannot tell you the exact mechanics of it, but in an effort to keep my knee as straight as possible when the leading foot touches down, I have tried to improve my ankle flexibility. I believe this has resulted in a much gentler heel strike, and therefore less wear on the heel cap. I believe I also look better aesthetically, as a bonus.

[Puffer]

I don't know what you have to pay your cobbler for re-heeling but I doubt it is trivial.   Have you tried doing it yourself - an easy task with the wider/wooden heels?   You can buy a sheet of hard-wearing composition material and cut out heel pieces, which are easy to stick on with a nail (or two) added for security.   With stilettos, new top lifts in various sizes (pin and width) are readily available and fitting usually requires nothing more than a pair of pliers.

Those shoes with a wider, blocky, heel (if you have any) often have a plastic top lift with protruding pegs that fit into holes in the moulded shoe heel.   Not easy to replace like-for-like but my solution is to force some wooden dowel into the holes and cut off flush, with new top pieces cut from sheet material and glued into place, with a panel pin driven through into each dowel.   Or you can fill the 'void' in a moulded heel with some shaped wood and nail into that.

[mlroseplant]

I wasn't so much making a statement about having to reheel shoes as I was about evidently having significantly changed my walk in the past year. Even after 11 years, I still have days when I feel like I'm walking poorly. Not every day, though. The increased life of the top lifts is just serendipitous.

[mlroseplant]

Church Outfit of the Week (OOTW). Does anybody else appreciate the difference between an acronym and an initialism? I got a 3 page list the other week of Company X "acronyms," which was actually very handy, because they use all of these abbreviations constantly, and act like people know what the hell they are talking about. However, 90% of these abbreviations were not in fact acronyms, but initialisms. And I expect Company X people to know what the hell I'm talking about.

Back on point, the flared trouser seems to be coming back into style. Naturally, it is a slightly different cut and presentation than my old recycled clothing, but I didn't think it looked too bad, especially with my now-back-in-style-but-still-dated-looking platform sandals.

[Jkrenzer]

The flare is minimal and presents well over your heels.

The flared pants only work with heels in my opinion. 

[Shyheels]

That’s a nice look and yes, I agree flares work wonderfully with heels - a nice free flowing feel. Alas they don’t work well with knee boots … 

[mlroseplant]

Church OOTW: This was kind of difficult to come up with, simply because my entire wardrobe is currently piled up on the living room couch, due to some major plumbing work that is occurring in its usual spot. The famous pipe that @Puffer admires, featured in many of my past photos of shoes, may undergo some changes today! At least I hope it's today.

I'm going to list these in the "New Sandals" section also, but the rest of the outfit is nothing special, other than the fact that I had to dig out the ironing board before I put it on, due to its position toward the bottom of the pile. The polo shirt is from Walmart, and the pants were bought at Costco.

I have had the mules for quite a little while, but I've never worn them out until today. There is a reason for that. They are not uncomfortable, but they are a little bit hard to walk in. More elsewhere.

[Puffer]

11 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

...

The famous pipe that @Puffer admires, featured in many of my past photos of shoes, may undergo some changes today! At least I hope it's today.

...

I await developments with great interest, and not a little concern.   Maybe we should have a 'Who has installed a new pipe?' thread.   

[mlroseplant]

12 hours ago, Puffer said:

I await developments with great interest, and not a little concern.   Maybe we should have a 'Who has installed a new pipe?' thread.   

Yes, we should absolutely start a pipe thread! The irony being that my new pipe is not threaded, as it is PVC.

[Shyheels]

I’m sure there’s plenty of people interested in PVC on this forum as well. 

[Cali]

Some PVC also have threads.

[Puffer]

11 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

Yes, we should absolutely start a pipe thread! The irony being that my new pipe is not threaded, as it is PVC.

What threads do you use in the US on e.g. tap tails and other screwed brass or iron items?   Despite metrication, we continue with BSP (British Standard Pipe) threads in the UK, generally 0.5", 0.75" and 1.0" for domestic supplies but several larger sizes are also used.   Gone are the days when household hot and cold supplies (and central heating) were run in screwed iron (let alone in lead) but of course such pipework and fittings still exist.   Copper pipes (now in metric sizes: mostly 15mm, 22mm and 28mm o/d) with either compression or soldered joints are the norm, but push-fit plastic is increasingly found too.   Waste plumbing (1.25" = 32mm or 1.5" = 40mm) is invariably uPVC or ABS, with solvent-weld, push fit or compression joints.   DIY plumbing is a rewarding exercise!

[at9]

BSP is widely used in countries other than the UK. I think the USA has its own set of screwed pipe threads. I remember once having to fit an adaptor between a bit of US made kit and UK pipework. It wasn't easy to find that adaptor. UK push-fit waste pipe is slightly smaller diameter than solvent weld of the same nominal size. Both will work in compression fittings.

And in other news, we are wearing heels....

[Shyheels]

A bit like bicycle bottom brackets with English, Italian, French and Swiss threading.

As above - in other news, wearing heels and anticipating the onset of boot season

[Puffer]

1 hour ago, at9 said:

BSP is widely used in countries other than the UK. I think the USA has its own set of screwed pipe threads. I remember once having to fit an adaptor between a bit of US made kit and UK pipework. It wasn't easy to find that adaptor. UK push-fit waste pipe is slightly smaller diameter than solvent weld of the same nominal size. Both will work in compression fittings.

And in other news, we are wearing heels....

Yes, I have seen or used BSP fittings from much of Europe and Asia.   Woe betide the 'installer' who attempts to fit solvent-weld waste into push-fit fittings; the slight pipe-size difference is to stop someone trying to solvent-weld push-fit pipe.

[mlroseplant]

Solvent weld. I have never heard that term, but it's probably technically more accurate than what we call it here in the U.S.--glue. As in PVC glue, and there is nothing quite like that smell. At any rate, I looked up the specs on the American standard, National Pipe Thread (which does not apply in the instant case), and it would appear that they differ slightly from the British Standard Pipe. The only thing they seem to have in common is the same thread coarseness for trade sizes of 1/2 and 3/4".

Here are photos of my new main waste line, as it is married to the old cast iron stack. In fact, there are a couple of threaded PVC fittings in there. Can you spot them, @Cali? Personally, I hate dealing with PVC threads--they're generally a pain in the neck, at least from an electrical perspective.

Annnndd....both these pictures are turned 90º, and I can't get them un-turned. Oh well. That happens randomly, but thankfully only occasionally, when one uploads pictures to this site.

Edited August 30, 2023 by mlroseplant

[Puffer]

Yes, 'solvent weld' is the usual term here for the process to join uPVC and/or ABS pipework (including electrical conduit, which comes in 20mm and 25mm o/d sizes).   As you say, the smell is quite distinctive - and potentially addictive - and the solvent should be used with care as it has some anaesthetic qualities, as do most chlorinated organic solvents such as chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, trichloroethylene etc that are widely used for cleaning/degreasing as well as being common plastic solvents.

I can't see too clearly from your pics but I'm guessing that the threaded plastic parts are the unscrewable elements of the trap and what appears to be an air admittance valve.   Threads in uPVC components can give trouble if they are mot put together squarely (i.e. crossthreaded) and thereby get damaged or stripped.

[bambam]

On 8/21/2023 at 3:12 AM, mlroseplant said:

Church Outfit of the Week (OOTW). Does anybody else appreciate the difference between an acronym and an initialism? I got a 3 page list the other week of Company X "acronyms," which was actually very handy, because they use all of these abbreviations constantly, and act like people know what the hell they are talking about. However, 90% of these abbreviations were not in fact acronyms, but initialisms. And I expect Company X people to know what the hell I'm talking about.

Back on point, the flared trouser seems to be coming back into style. Naturally, it is a slightly different cut and presentation than my old recycled clothing, but I didn't think it looked too bad, especially with my now-back-in-style-but-still-dated-looking platform sandals.

Well this just looks way too Perfect! Great length, great cut, works so well!