On your feet

"The road goes on forever
and the party never ends."

Robert Earl Keene



I've really taken a shine to checking out people's shoes. I've worn sandals almost constantly since Zoe was born more than four years ago. In fact, I've worn the same pair of sandals for most of those four years. I have another pair I threw in once or twice a week to shake things up.

No sandals here, so I've been looking around to see what the poor saps living in cold weather wear.

What I've noticed in Pittsburgh: They have old shoes.

I was starting to wonder if shoes were so expensive here that people didn't buy them often. Or if people at my work just weren't paid enough to afford new shoes. I saw a shiny pair on feet here and there, but mostly I've seen tattered and battered soles on most.

I bought four pairs of dress shoes for work when I got here. The two pairs I favor, after only three weeks of wear, going from the house to the car and from the car into work -- both short distances -- well, my two favored pairs now look like I've owned them for years. With all the ice and slush and salt and mud.... ICK.

I quickly came to the conclusion that people wear their yucky shoes in winter. I'll test this theory come spring. Until then I'm shopping at Payless, if I even bother to buy more shoes at all.

As I was driving home tonight, stuff kept hitting my windshield. As a rookie snow driver, I could surmise only that it was salt or some shit on the road. About halfway home I realized it was chunks of ice flying off my hood. Another funny observation: My car makes new noises. And not new engine noises, but creaks and cracks and stuff like that, in the frame itself. After I climbed into my car tonight (shivering my ass off) I heard a slow, painful noise that convinced me one of the windows must have cracked.

No damage that I can see.

It was a whopping 12 degrees when I got home. I hope someone has a pair of thermal gloves for me under the tree because mittens ain't cutting it.