Shoe abominations

I meant to blog about this last week when I witnessed it, but time got away from me. However, it bears discussion.

I see, um, interesting fashion choices. I work on a university campus, with other institutions nearby. Student fashion is always creative and different. For example, students wearing flannel pj bottoms in pink with little sheep all over them in public. Often even worn to class, which for students is their "job" for however many years. Not something the vast majority of the world could get away with wearing to work unless you worked from home. But it's university/college society, so students get away with a lot more because it's not "real" society yet. It's an opportunity for them to explore who they are and who they want to be, and this often gets manifested in what they choose to wear. There was a guy at my college that discovered he loved wearing skirts, he found them airy and much less confining than pants, so he wore them for a good 3 1/2 years. But when he started interviewing for jobs, he wore a suit. University/college life vs. the real world. My sister shaved her head during college because she knew it was a time in her life that she could do that and not have it held against her. People kind of expect university/college students to do crazy things.

There are some things, however, that are always an abomination. I see Ugg boots everywhere, and they're bad, but not an abomination. Flannel pj bottoms in public are not an abomination; hell, at least they're covered by their clothes. Don't get me started on the mini skirts and girls that don't know how to bend over and pick something up without flashing their panties to the world. But the other day, on my walk home from work, I witnessed footwear that made me want to gouge out my eyeballs:

Black. Patent. Leather. Clogs.

Yes, CLOGS in black patent leather.

In general, black patent leather should be reserved for formal occasions. It reminds me of the fancy church shoes I had as a child, in a Mary-Jane style. But to make a CLOG out of it is, well, disturbing. Disturbing and wrong.

Wrong. So many shades of just wrong. A shoe abomination. The person wearing them needs to be put in a room and subjected to reprogramming regarding appropriate footwear. Somebody call Stacy and Clinton of TLC's What Not To Wear before I take matters into my own hands.

Mourning a loss

My hiking boots died today. I'd like to observe a moment of silence to mark their passing.

It's a sad, sad thing to have to retire a pair of boots. For those of you that don't backpack or hike, I'm not sure you can really understand just how sad it is. You bond with your boots. They see you through mud, water crossings, gravel, snow, ice, sand, dust and whatever else the trail throws at you. They protect your feet, keeping them warm and dry, and once they've really been broken in, they become one with your feet, molding to the shape of your foot and your own walking style. It takes miles and miles to really break in and bond with a pair of boots. You take care of the leather, cleaning them with a brush and lovingly rubbing Sno-Seal (or other wax-based conditioning and waterproofing products) into them before and after each adventure, keeping them supple and waterproof. Eventually you can wear your boots and they are so comfortable you may as well be wearing slippers.

My boots in all their broken-in glory

I've had this particular pair since the early 1990s, circa 1992 I believe. Yes, that's about 15 years. I've put somewhere around 300+ miles on them over those years, doing both general light day hikes and extended backpacking trips. They've supported my feet and arches when I've carried around a pack weighing 65 pounds on my hips (any good backpacker knows the main weight of your backpack should rest on your hips, not your shoulders and back) on a 10 day, 100+ mile trip. They've done double duty as my snow & ice, and general nasty/vile weather shoes. And they have become as comfortable as a pair of slippers, only better because they have arch support and my slippers don't.

This morning I discovered that, in the middle of a bout of nasty weather consisting of snow and freezing rain, the sole has decided to begin disconnect itself from part of the heel on one of the boots. This is not something that can be repaired without resoling both shoes however, because the sole itself is also disintegrating. So it's time to retire them.

Close-up of the disintegrating sole

It's a sad, sad day.