Shoe Story plus....

Ok, the shoe story will be long - those of you who aren't interested, scroll on down to the picture... I'll be posting a bit about other stuff, too...

Now, I may repeat myself a bit, but:

I spent most of my adult life owning two pairs of footwear. Winter boots and "indoor shoes". The indoor shoes were usually something along the lines of heels, to wear with dressy clothes, or when I was volunteering at a school/becoming a teacher. Need to set an example for the kids and all that... so, the shoes did double duty, really. Besides, I have weird feet, and need heels for comfort....more on that later....

Eventually, we started doing things like planting a garden. Now, heels and soft dirt or mud do *not* get along.... I was forced to get "running shoes". Now, running shoes are not my favourite foot wear - for many reasons. They don't have heels is the biggest thing. But, besides that, "running shoes" refers to the footwear that is normally made of canvas tops with rubber (or rubberlike) soles. When I was little, this was what all kids wore - well, all girl kids. The boys had black high-tops. Later, when I was a teen, "track shoes" became the popular choice. These were more comfortable, in my opinion, but they were also expensive... I rarely got to own them, until I became an adult. So, this was what I wore/wear. I then had three pairs of footwear - winter boots (replaced when the holes in the sole made for cold wet feet - about every two or three years), heels (replaced as needed) and running shoes.

Then I started curling. Curling is a sport played on ice, in the winter time, involving brooms and rocks.... the basic idea is you slide a rock from one end of a sheet of ice to the other, and you sweep the ice to keep it clear of debris and to help guide the rock... And, among other "extra" equipment, you can get special curling shoes. They have one shoe with a gripping sole, and one has a smooth section for sliding along while sweeping, or delivering the stone. One doesn't *Have To* have the special shoes. But one needs a decent substitute, with clean soles.... so, pair number four, again track shoes, that were dedicated to curling. When they showed signs of wear, or the gardening shoes needed replacing, the "curling shoes" wo8uld be re-assigned to garden shoes, and the new ones went with the curling stuff.

Indoor shoe replacement at one point resulted in shoes that were only semi-dressy. Meaning, they were fine for daytime or casual slacks, but not for evening out dress. Enter - the dressy sandals. Heels, of course.... nice strappy things.

Eventually, though, straps break, heels wear down.... all that sort of thing. Shoes are bought and replaced... preferably on sale....

So - I was now up to: Winter Boots, Indoor Shoes, Dressy shoes, two pairs track shoes.
Lifestyle changes are terrible, aren't they? Fills up the closet real fast...

Eventually, I stopped curling. Cost, knees giving out, politics, all made the game not so enjoyable. Was able to wittle down the collection to only one pair of track shoes at one time.
Then, there was the one year, where I wore out my indoor shoes - but couldn't afford to replace them. So, I was wearing the heels for any must dress up affair, (or the winter boots, depending on season) and the track shoes for anything else. Well, when I say I need heels..... If it is a cool summer, where I can't go barefoot, and I find myself wearing the track shoes (flat soled) most of the time - I end up limping by August.... I invariably put my foot down, heel down, and pull the back of my leg bad enough to hurt - and usually, by mid August, have managed to twist an ankle. Which results in pain and swelling that lasts until mid-September, when I can get away with wearing the winter boots with heels....

That hasn't happened for a few years, now, though, because......

As I get older, I've found that my internal furnace has been keeping me warm enough that I either spend my summers in bare feet, and walk on my toes, or I invested in a pair of everyday sandals. Not the kind that I grew up calling "thongs", which now means something entirely different, (now the foot wear is called "flipflop", a term I think is silly, but that is just me), but a pair of basic sandals, leather piece aross the top of the foot, flat bottom. BUT - these ones have some shaping to the foot part - they are flat on the bottom, but the part that holds your foot is shaped... so, they don't bother my ankles and legs so much.

Last year, the sandals wore out, which was sad. But I got lucky, and found an identical replacement pair this spring!!

Also this spring... I bought my first pair of rubber boots since I was a very very very young child. As a child, I had to wear rubber boots when it rained. They were called in my youth, Wellington boots. Or Wellies. And I hated them. They were uncomfortable. And they were identical to everyone else's. There was more than one occassion that I found myself stumbling home from school in the wrong size boots, because some other kid had grabbed mine by mistake.... Righted the next day, mind you - names were written inside everyone's boots - but still, unpleasant and uncomfortable for a short time.... As soon as I was old enough to stubbornly rebel - I did. I learned to walk around puddles, jump over them, or I would wear (as I got older) my winter boots in the rain. But, a couple years ago (has it *really* been that long???) a dear friend of mine was visiting with us at our cabin, and it was a nasty rainy spring.... there was water and small ponds everywhere.... Really, you couldn't call them puddles. They were too deep and too big for that. So, we had been garage saling (or is it sailing?) and she found a pair of rubber boots to buy.... After a short discussion, she got me thinking that maybe they weren't such a bad thing after all. Well, this spring, was as rainy (if not more so) than that one.... So, I hit the store - which was almost sold out of rubber boots. I had to buy a smaller mens size pair. But, they are distinctive enough. First, they have a different colour sole than the old black and red ones I remember so vividly. They're black and green... And, to be sure - I have a rubber-marking pen, that I sketched a couple kitties onto the sides with :)

Now.... I forgot to mention, that when my son got married a few years ago, I still owned some dressy strappy shoes, but they were starting to show signs of age.... I could/can still get away with wearing them to a dressy occassion, but not as the "mother of the groom". Too much in the spotlight for that....so I had to buy a brand new pair. And, there was the time we were at the thrift store, and I found a pair of irressistable indoor shoes (lace-up style, solid heel) that I couldn't pass up, so I bought to have ready when the "current" indoor shoe (solid heel lace up) wear out....

So - here we are, up to: winter boots, rubber boots, two pair indoor shoes, everyday sandals, one pair track shoes, two pair strappy shoes, one pair heels (I think they call the style "pumps", slip on with heels?)in black, one pair in white (I forgot to mention these - I bought them for the lighter coloured clothes I wore when I was teaching, which promptly got a mark on them, so they've kind of sat in the back of the closet for ages. Unless I finally weeded them out at the last closet cleaning.... I don't recall seeing them for a while, but I *am* a packrat, so I might still have them....), and my latest purchase....

I need to backtrack a little here. For a while, some years ago now, I was working in construction. When I started out, I asked if I should get a pair of steel toe boots. I was told I didn't need them, that a good decent pair of track shoes would be fine. I bought some (needed them at that time anyway) but truthfully, it didn't ever sit well with me. I never did drop anything damaging on my feet, but still, the potential was there. (my head - now that is a different story!!)

So, this summer, we needed to do something about the back door of our cabin. It was originally supposed to be an interior door, so it didn't handle the weather well. Rather than the expense of a new door, we decided (since I had construction experience, and knew how) to rebuild the existing door. This summer, despite the cool wet rainy spring, had some wonderful hot spells. The day that I was going to be playing with wood and power tools, I put on socks, trackshoes, and long sleeved shirt, without thinking about it, until after the door was finished and I was changing into shorts and barefeet/sandals. Then, I realized how automatic it was for me to wear appropriate clothing - which came at a time when DH had been venting his frustration at how a lot of the people at the manufacturing firm where he works, were whining about having to wear their steel-toed boots in the heat - and how they wanted to wear shorts to work.....

We were planning to re-roof the cabin (still need to, but have revised the plan very recently) by the end of this summer, and after realizing how strongly I felt about the safety issue... I decided that I was going to invest in a pair of steel toed boots. Something that I would have for the rest of my life, that I could have on hand in case I ever needed them (I have on ocassion done some jobs casual like at the company DH works for, and borrow his spare boots then; or I can wear them when we go tree hunting - cutting wood for the cabin with a chainsaw).

I was hoping to buy them at the end of this month.... but got them a few weeks ago. I managed to win a small subsidiary prize on one of our lotteries, some $70, and managed to find at the thrift store a pair of boots that fit me - they'd gotten in a shipment of "seconds" - some of the leather was mottled looking on one part of the shoe - I mean, really, work boots - they are not going to stay "pretty looking" for long..... Anyway - Steel toed boots, rated for electric safety, normally worth well over a hundred bucks - for only forty dollars.

Which is why I've had footwear on my mind lately :)

OK!! Now, for those of you who slogged through that story, or who scrolled through looking for:

The mystery stole, blocked!! This is from the wing end, of course :)

I'll save the kitty story for tomorrow morning - laundry day today, after all :) And, blogger was acting up this morning, so I had to save all that typing from above, and retry this afternoon. Or I'd tell the kitty story now.... >:}