You may know I’m not keen on shopping. I’ll tend to wear something that’s ‘still good’ until it’s clear it isn’t. But now that Jane wants to start walking again—I began to realize the shoes have sort of reached the ‘not good’ stage. After a lifetime of never being able to wear any sneakers/gym shoes I have ever bought—I have paid big bucks for some that were supposed to be great, and on one notorious occasion, I ended up with horrendous blisters at the top of Doomsday Hill on our 7 mile Bloomsday Race—bandaids were not sufficient and I had no choice at the 3/4 mark but to take the shoe off, flatten it to a sandal-sole by standing on it, and using the laces to tie it to the wounded foot. Heck, yes, I wanted my ‘finishers’ tee-shirt. I limped—OSG kindly stayed with me—and finally crossed the finish line. We ended up at one of Spokane’s trendiest restaurants, near the finish, and I still was wearing my impromptu sandal—and still limping. It took weeks to heal.
Well, that’s typical of my relationship with tennies. Pain and suffering. I have a very, very high instep, and lacings usually cut the blood off to my lower foot—or if I don’t lace, I get blisters.
To my astonishment, I finally, after all these decades, found a style I can wear: Reebok’s Easy Toner—not the walking or running version, just the old original, fat black tennies with inflated half-ball soles that can get a little tippy (understatement) if you injudiciously squat to look at something and throw your weight to your toes: you’ll go right over and feel very silly. But they are the most comfy thing I’ve ever had on my feet. And now that I’ve ordered a new pair, and gotten them, I can say that, yes, the pair I’ve worn for about 3 years is a little underinflated now. Thorns are not good for these shoes. Rose thorns. Yew thorns. Nope, nope, nope. I’ll use my old pair for the garden, the new one for going out on the town, or for long walks. I also got a pair of sandals: those are kind of underinflated, too, and the straps have stretched, which makes it hard to keep them on your feet and turn around on steps—a safety thing.
So I have New Shoes. And in a day or two I will have New Sandals. Yay! Jane is now looking at them critically — her last attempt to order some got the wrong ‘last’ (probably the ones for ‘walking’) and she couldn’t use them. She believes these are the True Article and she will likely order a pair, because her sneaker-soles have gone flatter than mine have, and she needs the support worse than I do.
The pond is very clear right now. Everything is great. I feel guilty enjoying our beautiful 70 degree weather with so many people in misery with power-outs and fires. The only thing I can suggest is what I learned living in the south—a neckerchief soaked in water will keep your brain cool; ditto soaking your hat or cap. Don’t drink alcohol: drink cold drinks. I just do not tolerate heat well at all, and I learned that a wet scarf and a hand fan can bring the temperature down measurably. Shade in the out of doors is better than shade in a house and tree-shade is even better, because the leaves cool the air.
I have one of those neckerchiefs that have the hydrophilic crystals in them. I soak it in cool water, put it around my neck or my head, and it’s a lot easier to take the heat. (The neckerchief cloth has hot peppers for its design!)
Power to my parents’ house was restored at 6:00PM Sunday evening. They spent Sunday afternoon at my house where there was no power loss, the air conditioner was on, and they were out of the heat. I did take my generator down to their house to keep the refrigerator and freezer running, so it came in very handy for them.
Buy another pair while you’re at it and have them in reserve. That’s what I do.
I have a picture of your post-doomsday, sneaker-remade-into-sandal, complete with your foot that I could send you! And, apropos of sneakers becoming sandals, the same RSS blast that brought me your shoe-buying adventure also introduced me to Urshuz (http://urshuz.com). I think I’d have to see and try them before I invested in them…
I so need that! 😉
Re the interchangeable shoes, what I’d want is the same upper and 3-4 different soles, for house, yard, street, etc. But then, I’m the person who steps into pre-laced shoes rather than bend over to mess with them. The concept of having to assemble my footwear is a bit, well, dusty.
Perhaps a “Shupervisor” of shoes would be appropriate?
The best advice I’ve every heard was “Oh, go soak your head!”, though I don’t think it was meant as such. 😉 But if the day is hot enough, that’s just what I do, whenever I need to–keeps the old brain box cool.
How’s the SWT doing now?
I worry when I go outside in the morning and think 80 degrees is cool. If the outside air is below 80 the house is hot if I turn the AC on. I’m cheap and drinking lots of sugar free stuff. The humidity has been low for the Ohio River Valley. Haven’t melted yet. Haven’t beat on those weeds early in the mornings either. YET! No more than an hour at a time. Ceiling fans are good things. The cats show up if they want attention, food or water.
One of the best investments I ever made was when I discovered a 2.5 gallon dispenser with a spigot and fill hole big enough to get my hand into at the local hardware store. I bought 2 and have them constantly rotating with very lightly sweetened iced tea in the fridge. When one gets emptied, I bring it out for washing and meanwhile, have a new vat brewing on the stove for the other. We will go through most of a 5 pound bag of sugar for the tea and other cooking over the summer, but that is, I believe, a lot lighter weight than soda.
I’ve been through so many of the glass spigot jugs for ice tea. I’ve gotten into the habit that if one of them gives up the ghost, I filch the still working parts for the next one, and try to keep them going as long as possible. Either they crack or the spigot goes or the lid goes, or whatever. I finally had to give up the sugar because sipping on it all day was ruining my teeth, so I now use Stevia as my sweetener. Its a bit more expensive, but a WHOLE lot cheaper than the dental work!
a nice device for power-out situations is sun-tea, ie, tea in a jar.
The OLD method of chilling tea was just to submerge the container in water. Houses that had a spring-house were lucky. I’ve only ever been in one, but it was certainly nice—a great place to chill down people as well as keep butter and other perishables, on a hot day.
On picnics, we would submerge a watermelon in the creek or lake. WOrked pretty well, too.
O yes! I remember holidays during the summer; we shared a lakeside with several other families. You could practically walk across the creek on the chilling melons.
I have a neck wrap with the water loving crystals too, and that’s prevented heat headaches on several occasions. It starts to get pretty unpleasant after 8 hrs though. I find that having cool feet makes a huge difference. Sitting down with my feet in a pan of cold water for five minutes can give me chills which lasts for a good half hour. A plant mister helps too, for occasional spritzing of the feet. Good luck to everyone in the hot zones! (I sleep with an ice bag wedged against my head in the summer too. I hate the heat.)
I don’t like shopping either. Never have. The advent of online shopping was a boon to me as it means I don’t have to put up with crowds of people or worry about where to park.
As for clothes – lol. I’m a programmer. I’m a bloke. I’m mostly single.
As long as something doesn’t have holes (or at least not visible ones) I’ll wear it. As for style – meh. On the rare occasion I buy clothes I go by the size and how many pockets it has.
Maybe that’s why I’m mostly single 😀
http://www.aurorashoeco.com/
So far, I have not been able to save up the $ for a pair. Money is tight (what else is new?). But I will have a pair at some point — unless he quits making them before I can get a pair.
I don’t wear shoes in the house. I go barefoot in summer and wear “sock feet” in the winter (handknitted heavy socks with reusable sew-on leather soles). I’ve got two pairs of Rebocs — a white pair and a black pair. I am lucky in that I do not have much difficulty with either feet or shoeing same, although I do have a time keeping heel calluses in check. I shop by internet whenever I can afford to shop. Shopping in person is the pits. I’ve been known to shop groceries at 3 a.m. at our local WallyWorld when it is blessedly free of crowds. Also, it is much cooler at that time of day/night. We’ve been broiling here in the Tx panhandle — had one week there with 100+ temp and 12% humidity — but here lately the humidity has gotten bad — it’s up to 34% today!
I do feel for you having to live in such heat. I have to travel in London four days a week (though not for much longer). It’s about three hours of travel a day if one is lucky, and the conditions on the Tube (especially, but also the train) are unbearable. It’s always packed, with bodies jammed up against one another, and if it’s hotter than about 70 degrees it is absolutely unbearable (there is no air conditioning on the lines I use).
A temperature of 100 degrees with high humidity must be stifling – I don’t think I could function at all under such conditions. I can’t understand people who live in a city and say they love the hot weather.
I also have a problem with shoes in hot conditions – especially with bare feet. You see women teetering along in 10-inch heels worn on bare feet and wonder how they do not cripple themselves.
Luckily, Britain is unseasonally cool and wet at present. Hopefully the ‘bad’ weather will last just a few weeks longer…